We are happy to announce that the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) will be continuing into a new phase from January 2020 with an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) award for 5 years.
In the new phase of the Centre we will focus on delivering a comprehensive programme of cutting-edge research methods training across the UK. Building on our current successful training programme, we will be delivering innovation-driven face-to-face, online and blended learning which will be embedded in a new online training portal. We will provide a mixture of standalone instant access materials (such as e-books, videos, interactive slide decks) as well as whole modules based within a VLE. We will not be undertaking new methodological research as part of this award, though there will be some pedagogic research still and the resources linked to our previous research programme will still be available on our website.
We will aim to advance methodological understanding and practice across all sectors, disciplines and career stages and provide a vehicle for capturing methodological developments from the wider research community, within the social sciences and beyond. In order to achieve this, we will be closely engaging with our stakeholders and audiences.
NCRM will be delivered by a partnership of three internationally leading centres of methodological excellence: The Universities of Southampton, Manchester and Edinburgh. This partnership will be significantly enhanced and expanded to include strategically selected Centre partner institutions who will deliver training locally to ensure geographical and subject expertise diversity. The nine institutions are UCL, NatCen, WISERD, Bristol, Exeter, Essex, Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow.
We will be working to transition the website of the National Centre of Research Methods to reflect the Centre’s new focus by summer 2020.
Thank you to everyone who filled in our survey of user needs. The survey report will be available on our website.