NatCen Social Research

Who we are
NatCen’s Methodology & Innovation Hub (MIH) is a collective of highly skilled experts in social research methodology and practice, led by Gerry Nicolaas.

The Hub provides independent advice on the design, conduct and analysis of social research and undertakes methodological research that supports the development of policy and practice.
Methodology & Innovation at NatCen
Leading the UK in the collection of bio-measures in household surveys

Synthesising different forms of evidence to create accessible policy insights

Bringing deliberative research online to engage the public on key policy issues
News
21 August

NEW BLOG: Martin Wood, NatCen's Director of Longitudinal Surveys, discusses how the UK’s longitudinal social research studies have stepped forward to offer a means of understanding the Covid-19 outbreak’s impact on work, family life, wellbeing and health-related behaviour.

7 July

Ceri Davies speaks to Impact Magazine about bringing deliberative research online, for an article on the rise of citizens’ assemblies and the future of deliberation.

14 April 2020

NEW BLOG: How do we best adapt social survey questionnaires for the era of online data collection? As @GerryNicolaas explains, success lies in going back to the basics. This article first appeared in @TheSRAOrg’s Research Matters magazine

28 February 2020

New ESRC-funded @GenPopWeb2 network, involving NatCen with researchers from University College London, University of Southampton and the Office for National Statistics aims to develop knowledge and practice in relation to transitioning face-to-face surveys to online data collection.

10 December 2019

Ceri Davies and Anna Marcinklewicz run a workshop on Digital deliberations: creating a tool for thoughtful democracy? at the Social Research Association Annual Conference

5 November 2019

NatCen and Dr Heather Wardle report for the Gambling Commission - Longitudinal Study of Gambling: Consultation and Scoping Review is published as part of the Commission’s National Strategy

21 November 2019

Gerry Nicolaas talks about Questionnaire design for online surveys. The future of online data collection in social surveys, Social Statistics Section, Royal Statistical Society, London, 21 November 2019

21 November 2019

Ceri Davies and Debbie Collins talk about Innovation in Research Methods at NatCen to HMRC government social researchers and analysts at their mini conference.

18 July 2019

Anne Connolly presents paper at European Survey Research Association conference, July 2019 Overweight & obesity within households: An exploration using objective physical measurements and subjective self-assessments from the Health Survey for England

21 June 2019

Head of Methods, Gerry Nicolaas, delivers keynote address to the 2019 Future of Online Data Collection in Social Surveys international conference Online data collection for social surveys: back to basics.

8 March 2019

Bernard Steen discusses The Presentation of Don’t Know Answer Options in Web Surveys: an experiment with the NatCen Panel at the 2019 General Online Research Conference.
Methodology research reports
Our reports on research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council are available for download as pdfs:

Joanna D’Ardenne, Martin Wood and Bruno Pacchiotti: Considering alternative fieldwork designs for a biennial face-to-face longitudinal survey

Gerry Nicolaas, Emma Corteen and Byron Davies: The use of incentives to recruit and retain hard-to-get populations in longitudinal studies

Curtis Jessop, Dave Hussey, Klaudia Lubian and Martin Wood: Using a targeted design and R-indicators to enhance sample quality in a web-CATI longitudinal study
- Methods seminars
  
  Next webinar:
  
  Promoting desirable interviewer behaviour in the European Social Survey
  
  With Kristen Olson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Patten Smith IPSOS Mori and Joel Williams Kantar Public UK h on 5 November
  
  Latest webinar:
  
  Smartphones: collecting better social data
  
  With Peter Lugtig, Utrecht University
  Recorded on 25 June.
  
  Registrations for our next webinar will be open soon, so please check back and register in advance.
  
  #Methodsem shares findings from the latest methodological research projects and discusses current issues in survey methodology. The seminar series is a joint initiative between NatCen, the European Social Survey ERIC and City University (London).
  
  Recordings of past seminars are available here and on YouTube.
Training courses
Through NatCen Learning, we run short courses for the Social Research Association, National Centre for Research Methods, and for a range of organisations wanting bespoke training.

We also work with UK Q-Step centres, providing work placements for their students.

Find out more about NatCen Learning here
Keen to work with our researchers?
Get in touch at 0207 549 9584 or new-business@natcen.ac.uk