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UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD LEADS NEW PRODUCTIVITY INSIGHTS NETWORK The ESRC has announced the establishment of the Productivity Insights Network which will assess the state of productivity research in the UK to improve understanding of the factors affecting productivity and informing the development of new strategies and research.


As well as providing leadership


and being a forum for collaboration, the network will: n pull together interdisciplinary research groups and other networks in academia, policymaking and business


n promote the use of innovative methods


n develop a series of small-scale studies


EIGHT ESRC RESEARCH CENTRES GRANTED TRANSITION FUNDING Eight established research centres have been awarded a total of £6.9m to continue their work under a new funding model designed to secure the long-term sustainability of social science research excellence in the UK. In December 2017 the first ‘transition review’ took place for existing centres coming to the end of their five-year grant. The review approved continued funding for the following ESRC research centres to undertake social science research: n Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability Centre (STEPS)


n Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE)


n Centre For Macroeconomics: Working towards a stable and sustainable growth path


n Systemic Risk Centre n Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy (CCCEP)


n International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health: Centre Mid-Term Review Proposal (ICLS)


n ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS)


n Centre for Population Change (CPC)


n complement (and collaborate with) existing research agendas, whether or not they are ESRC-funded


n contribute to policy development n run small scale competitions to allocate funding to academics outside of the network to undertake relevant projects. The Productivity Insights


Network will be led by Professors Philip McCann and Tim Vorley of Sheffield University Management School. They will lead a total of nine universities: University of Cambridge, Cardiff University, University of Strathclyde, Durham University, University of Glasgow, Glasgow Caledonian University, University of Leeds and University of Essex. The network will also benefit


from the involvement of two private


The ESRC has announced that each of these centres will receive ‘transition funding’ typically equating to 45% of the full economic costs of their original five-year grant funding. For the first time, this will be co-funded with contributions from ESRC (20%) and their host research organisation (25%). The new centres’ transition


funding policy marks a step-change in the way ESRC supports its centres. It follows a review into how ESRC could continue to foster and sustain the excellence and impact of its centres over the long term, without reducing investment elsewhere. The new policy acknowledges that while ESRC is not in a position to fund existing centres in full for a further five years, an additional period of three to five years of ESRC support at a lower level would assist these centres to maximise the impact and use of their research findings, methods and data developments, and provide a base level of funding to support them to become more self- sustaining.


For more information see:


www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-large- investments/esrc-centres-and-institutes n


NEW LEADERSHIP TEAM TO IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING OF MIGRATION The complex topic of migration could be better understood if several academic disciplines worked together to explain it, according to the leader of a new research team, jointly funded by the ESRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Dr Laura Hammond, Reader


in Development Studies at SOAS University of London, principal investigator of the Migration Leadership Team, will seek to improve collaboration on migration studies between the social sciences, the arts and humanities. The Migration Leadership Team


will review existing research on migration, highlight best practice and identify opportunities and priorities for new research. It will identify areas of research to prioritise, determine how to make an impact, and ways to communicate and collaborate that are likely to help bridge research, policy and public engagement. This approach will help spot where research will have the most impact, by establishing links between research and practice. n


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sector collaborators – Cambridge Econometrics and SQW Ltd. The wider Productivity Insights Network has a membership of over 50 academics as well as a growing number of public, private and third sector partners.


For more information, follow Productivity Insights Network on Twitter: @ProductivityNW n


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