NCRM has received new funding that will enable it to continue its high-quality research methods training and capacity-building activities until the end of 2025.
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has extended the centre’s current phase, which was scheduled to run from 2020 to 2024, by an additional year.
The extension means NCRM can maintain its support for researchers with an exciting programme that responds to new developments and challenges.
Activities will include short courses, collaborative workshops, a spring or summer school, researcher networks, methodological special interest groups and the creation of new online tutorials.
Professor Gabriele Durrant, Director of NCRM, said: "NCRM’s mission is to support researchers through a cutting-edge programme of high-impact training and capacity building activities.
"I’m delighted that, with this funding from ESRC, we’ll be able to continue providing these critical, in-demand services and respond to the many pressing challenges facing social scientists today.
“We have developed a diverse, innovative and ambitious array of initiatives and we can’t wait to share these with our users.”
Support for researchers at all career stages
NCRM has built a programme that reflects the needs of researchers at all career stages, across different disciplines and sectors.
The centre will run initiatives on core topics, as well as newly identified themes, such as AI, data-driven research skills, survey methods, evaluation methods, pedagogy and topics at the intersection of social science and other fields of study.
Activities will continue to cover a wide range of quantitative, qualitative, mixed, creative, digital and visual methods.
NCRM will use various modes of delivery – such as in-person, online and blended – to meet the needs of all researchers and to facilitate life-long learning and professional development.
The centre will continue working with partners across the UK, including other ESRC-funded investments and centres, data resources and doctoral training partnerships to develop and implement a strategically informed programme and reflect recent innovations.
ESRC has funded NCRM since the centre was founded in 2004. Since then NCRM has undergone several different phases, responding to changing needs, and is marking its 20th anniversary in 2024 with a year of celebratory activities.
Professor Durrant said: “I’d like to express my sincere gratitude to ESRC for their support over the past two decades and to thank NCRM’s fantastic team for their outstanding work and dedication.”