Why attend the Understanding Society Scientific Conference?
Occurring every two years, the Understanding Society Scientific Conference presents a rare chance for people from different disciplines to meet and share their research.
The Scientific Conference provides an international forum for the exchange of research based on longitudinal data; in particular using household panel studies. An important aim of the event is to bring together people from different disciplines and to share research covering a broad range of themes.
The last Scientific Conference in 2013 attracted over 250 delegates and over 50 papers from 35 research institutions, but this year is set to see 70 presentations, 20 poster sessions, 10 drop-in sessions, five specialist workshops and two keynote speakers: Professor Sara Arber and Professor David Bell.
What did delegates say last time?
“Everyone is very familiar with a single dataset, which puts us in a great position to ask questions. Not all conferences have this focus – I attended an event in Sydney just two weeks ago and there wasn’t the same opportunity for collaboration. There’s so much to discuss – we could do with one every year!” Alexander Labeit, Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, UK
A broad range of topics
“The conference definitely has a European feel to it, as well as being interdisciplinary – there’s a real variety of subjects. It’s good to get the chance to really dig into your subject and have experts comment on it without getting overly technical.”
Helena Meier, University of Cologne
Learning from others
“This is my first conference and I’m really enjoying it. I’m learning how Understanding Society can inform future dissertations for my team. The Q&A at the end of each session have been particularly useful. Everyone’s in a position to help each other and it’s very interesting hearing what others have to say.” Madelaine Crosswaite, University of York
“It’s great to see so many people of different interests united by the same data and for this opportunity to share ideas.”
Antony Laverty, Imperial College London
Seeing the bigger picture
“What’s surprised me, and others here, is the focus on what Understanding Society means not just for those sampled, but for society as a whole. There’s less picking at data and more focus on its impact – something that’s reflected in the name of the survey.” Marian Schmidt, LMU, University of Munich; Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Centre for Environmental Health
“It’s been a very good introduction to the data that’s available and the potential that could be made of it.”
Stephanie McFall, ISER
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