Survey Futures awards £1.28M to support development of survey methods

The Survey Data Collection Methods Collaboration, also known as Survey Futures, is pleased to announce £1.28 million funding for nine new research projects, designed to support a step change in survey research.

The funding will go to projects that will help to build evidence in different data collection techniques and innovative approaches to ensure survey methods remain fit-for-purpose.

Survey Futures is led by researchers from the Universities of Essex and Southampton and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UKRI-ESRC) for a three-year period, which began in July 2023. The main objective of this initiative is to ensure that it will remain possible in the UK to carry out high-quality social surveys of the kinds required by the public and academic sectors to monitor and understand society, and to provide a solid base for policy.

The nine new research projects will explore:

• Could the ONS Reference Data Management Framework transform how social surveys are conducted in the UK? (led by Gerry Nicolaas, National Centre for Social Research)
• Do we still need non-response follow-ups to web surveys of the UK general population? An analysis of cost-quality trade-offs (led by Gabriele Durrant, University of Southampton)
• Assessing methods for within-household selection in self-administered push-to-web surveys (led by Peter Lynn, University of Essex)
• Harnessing Generative AI for questionnaire design, evaluation and testing (led by Patrick Sturgis, London School of Economics)
• Why are respondents less likely to consent to data linkage in web than in-person interviews, and what can we do to increase informed consent in web? (led by Annette Jackle, University of Essex)
• Targeted use of differential monetary incentives in social surveys (led by Alessandra Gaia, University College London)
• Post pandemic role of face-to-face survey interviewers: stakeholder engagement (led by Debbie Collins, National Centre for Social Research)
• Assessing and disseminating methods for handling mode effects (led by Liam Wright, University College London)
• Under-represented population subgroups in social surveys: Methods for respondent-driven sampling with probability-based seeds (led by Olga Maslovskaya, University of Southampton)

Professor Peter Lynn, Principal Investigator – Survey Futures, says, “This set of nine research projects represent excellent value for money and support the overall objectives of Survey Futures.  These new projects should allow Survey Futures as a whole to provide a comprehensive view of current best survey methods in this area, so that surveys can continue to deliver high quality research to inform policy. This supports the UKRI’s strategic priority themes of creating opportunities and improving outcomes in communities across the country and securing better health, ageing and wellbeing for everyone.”

For more information, visit surveyfutures.net

Background information: 

• The Director and Principal Investigator of the Survey Futures project is Professor Peter Lynn (University of Essex) and Deputy Director and Co-Investigator is Dr Olga Maslovskaya (University of Southampton). Project partners include the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• There are 12 institutions/organisations representing academia and the social surveys sector, with 19 named individuals as co-investigators associated with the Survey Futures project.
• The first phase of the project, which kicked off in July 2023, aims to provide an understanding of the alternative approaches to data collection and explore possibilities for game-changing advances in other areas. There are several specific research strands, covering enhanced sampling frames and procedures, post-pandemic role of interviewers, video interviewing, methods for surveys without field interviewers, complex measurement in self-completion surveys, reducing and evaluating mode effects, data integration, and training and capacity building.
• The funding application process for this additional round of research went live on 26^th February 2024 and the deadline for bids was 8^th May. An Independent Assessment Panel reviewed applications on 11^th June.