This call is now closed. The call details are retained here for information only.
Introduction
The ESRC has funded a consortium of organisations, led by the University of Essex, to form the Survey Data Collection Methods Collaboration, known as Survey Futures. Recognising that there are currently considerable challenges to carrying out high quality surveys in the UK, but also some new opportunities, the objective of Survey Futures is:
“to deliver a step change in survey research to ensure that it will remain possible in the UK to carry out high quality social surveys of the kinds required by the public and academic sectors.”
To achieve this objective, the first phase of Survey Futures, which began in July 2023, included a programme of research that aims to assess the quality implications of a range of important survey design choices relevant to future UK social surveys and to provide good practice guidance and practical training materials. A particular focus for Survey Futures is online and mixed-mode surveys. There is also a stream of activities relating to training and capacity building that aims to identify promising ways to improve the capacity and skillset of both interviewers and research professionals and take steps towards making those improvements.
Survey Futures then sought proposals for a Second Phase of research projects that will make essential contributions towards achieving the objective of the Collaboration. Proposals had to complement research already underway in the first phase of the collaboration (details of the first phase research programme are available in Annex A of the Call for Proposals document on this webpage), should address the most urgent issues facing the survey community, and to result in, or contribute to, good practice guidance and practical training materials targeted at relevant practitioners within the survey community. The maximum duration of a project is 20 months.
Funding available/number of projects to be funded:
A total of around £1 million was available for second phase research projects. ESRC funds will cover 80% of the full economic costs (fec) of the proposal. Within this total budget, we anticipated funding 5 to 10 projects, but applications for small projects were welcome: there was no minimum or maximum budget. The principal investigator must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for ESRC funding, but co-investigators could be based elsewhere, including overseas.
What we were looking for:
Proposals had to seek to provide new knowledge regarding survey data collection methods that will contribute to the collaboration’s objective of ensuring that it will remain possible in the UK to carry out high quality social surveys.
We identified a number of topics within the following areas that we saw as top priorities to be addressed by the second phase of research projects:
- Representation
- Measurement
- Survey Quality
- Analysis of Mixed-Mode Data
More in-depth detail is shown in the Call for Proposals document which can be downloaded from this webpage.
- Call for proposals (pdf)
- Application form (docx)