Understanding Society’s Fellowships programme is once again open for applications. The new call is looking for applications on three themes:
- children and families
- linked administrative data
- policy evaluations
Projects which aim to promote policy learning are especially welcome, and there is additional funding available for dissemination and impact work. This can extend beyond the end date of the fellowship, and would be supported by Understanding Society’s policy and partnership unit.
The programme is open for applications now, with a deadline of 31 March.
Jack Kneeshaw, Associate Director of Data Linkage at Understanding Society, says: “Being one of the largest household panel studies in the world makes Understanding Society a rich resource for researchers, and ideal for exploring these three categories.
“People researching children and families can use two new datasets: a ‘family matrix’ which identifies connections between sample members, making it easy to see the trajectories of siblings as they move into adulthood, for example, or the circumstances of parents who separate and live apart. Also researchers can use the PEACH (Pregnancy and Early Childhood) dataset, which improves access to information on each child from pregnancy and birth up to the age of 10.
“We can now link Understanding Society to administrative datasets in education and the environment, and we expect to release a further tranche of linked data by October when these fellowships start – so we’re keen to see applications that want to make novel use of linked data and can promote the value of linkage.
“And because Understanding Society is multi-topic, it’s ideal for policy evaluation. Previous applications have examined benefit changes, the plastic carrier bag charge, and welfare-to-work, and we’re interested in projects with a robust evaluation method that can help inform policy thinking.”
Applications must be in by 31 March, with Fellowships expected to start this October. Researchers will hear if they’ve been shortlisted by 25 April, with interviews in the week of 9 May.
Family and householdsPolitics and social attitudes
