ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies 9th January 2014Professor Paul Boyle, Chief Executive, ESRC

Annual Meeting With Learned Societies-Agenda ▶ Welcome and Introductions▶ Spending Review Outcome and Implications▶ Input to ESRC Strategic Plan▶ Big Data▶ Horizon 2020 and Social Science▶ Open Access Update▶ Any Other Business

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Spending Review

Spending Review ▶One year Spending Review 2015-16 for “resource”

spend on research and training (outcome not yet known for individual Research Councils)– We know: Science “capital” funding to increase by £500m

in 2015-16 to £1.1 billion– We know: Science and Innovation Strategy will be

published with the 2014 Autumn State ment, outlining the Government’s ‘roadmap’ for science capital (target of keeping the overall science capital budget in line with inflation to 2020-21)

– We know: New £400m over 5 years from 2014-15 to improve the research and innovation capacity of Emerging Powers and build research partnerships for the UK

Resource Funding and ESRC

▶£150 m currently allocated to three broadly equal resource budgets:–Training and skills–Responsive research–Strategic and collaborative research

Resource Funding and ESRC

▶For 15/16 considerations for February Council include: virement from capital not allowed, extra resource money unlikely, we are already committed– Training and skills-students starting this autumn incur full

spend in 15/16– Responsive research-for new Grants in 15/16 success

rates currently 13% (but 100% for top rated proposals)– Strategic and collaborative research-26 shortlisted

Centres and Large Grants, with successful applications to start full year spend in 15/16

▶Council will confirm actual allocations when outcome known

Capital Funding and ESRC

▶Chancellor’s Autumn Statement 2012 included £600m for science, research and innovation, £484m for RCUK– Funds to support the development of innovative

technologies across eight areas, including ‘big data’

– Draws from RCUK Strategic Framework for Capital Investment (published Nov 2012)

– ESRC earmarked £64m to support packages of activity within the ‘big data’ theme in 2013 to 2015

Capital Funding and ESRC

▶£64 m Autumn Statement 2012 allocated to:– Administrative Data (ADRN awards announced;

Local govt imminent)– Business (award announcement imminent)– Understanding Populations (Enhancing

longitudinal studies e.g. bio-medical data for Millennium Cohort Study; ethnic minority boost for Understanding Society)

▶Social Media – call now later in 2014▶Third sector data – not a centre but focused

activities on specific needs in 2014

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶The Strategic Plan is:– A periodic statement of the Council’s long term

aims and priorities– Frames subsequent CSR related Delivery Plans

and Capital Funding opportunities BUT is not itself about detailed programmes, objectives and costings

– Prepared in consultation – n.b. today is not the only opportunity to input – council takes its ‘first reading’ in February

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Council intends to use this Strategic Plan to set out its leadership role in the likely RCUK continuing context of an emphasis on excellence with impact AND a financial context of capital opportunities, medium term resource constraints and a continued reduction in administration

▶A leadership role could include all of : strategic and collaborative research, responsive research (!), training, skills, methods, knowledge exchange, international activities and relations with institutions

▶But financial context suggests a premium on leadership that joins up and focuses Council activities with an even leaner administration

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Question to Societies: in the context of excellence with impact and the likely financial context:–Which areas of the ESRC Leadership role

are most critical (and which least)?–Where might that leadership role most

effectively join up and focus Council activities?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Leadership role examples:– Strategic and collaborative research-the role of

ESRC Centres, and Programmes?; the extent of partnered investments with business, government and civil society?; engagement in RCUK programmes?

– Responsive research- (more data soon) should ESRC go further with demand management? expectation of internal peer review? further action on Transformative research? use of highlights by method, data sources or cross-disciplinarity?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Leadership role examples:– Training and skills-(current DTC evaluation, new

REF data, decision on future Jan 2015)-more/less DTCs? social science thematic CDTs? More attention to knowledge exchange? What is the role of ESRC in developing skills alongside employers and researchers themselves? More Q step like investments?

– Methods- should ESRC do more to prevent the increasing availability of big data outstripping analytical capability? What role should ESRC play in development of qualitative methods?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Leadership role examples:–Knowledge exchange-should the Council’s

role in initiatives like What Works be enhanced? Should the ESRC increase expectations of Impact Acceleration across Institutions?– International- which places offer the best

new opportunities for excellent research partnerships? What role should ESRC play in development of European provision for social science?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Leadership role examples:–Relations with institutions- could be

argued that beginning with DTCs and now Impact Acceleration Accounts ESRC is devolving responsibilities to institutions while internal ESRC staff numbers fall–Should the Council go further and more

strategically in this direction?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Leadership role examples:–Informing major public debates e.g. Future of the UK and Scotland; UK in a Changing Europe–Should the Council go further and more strategically in this direction?

Input to ESRC Strategic Plan

▶Question to Societies, in the context of excellence with impact and the likely financial context:–Which areas of the ESRC Leadership role

are most critical (and which least)?–Where might that leadership role most

effectively join up and focus Council activities?

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Big Data

Big Data-like data only more of it? ▶As described above and as an example of

its leadership role, ESRC is investing £64m of capital in administrative, local, business, civil society and social media big data and augmenting survey data. The capital consultation suggests more capital might be available

▶But the Council may only want to go further if convinced of the case….

Big Data-a case for further investment? ▶Big Data is still a term where definitions

contend. But those definitions typically embrace volume (an organisation may have a stock of 100,000 gigabytes…) velocity (global society generates trillions of gigabytes every day…) and variety (transactional, relational, structured and unstructured)

▶ The scientific potential for new insight from big data for astronomy, medicine, climatology, oceanography is clear

Big Data-a case for further investment? ▶The scientific context of Big Data for social

science is especially interesting:– Social science (indeed ESRC funded research)

was there at the start of what is now considered Big Data with geographic information systems, and sociologists began social network analysis before that

– Contemporary social scientists from management, economics, criminology and many more disciplines are using approaches grounded in Big Data but…

Big Data-some challenges for social science ▶Big Data can mean a paradigm shift to data discovery

science from hypothesis testing science. Implications for refereeing in grants and journals?

▶For some social scientists, new inter-disciplinary opportunities arise from Big Data e.g. at the interface between social and medical science – ESRC is developing a vision for bio-social research

▶For other social scientists, Big Data seems to threaten and marginalise qualitative social science. But in could be contended that it is precisely the insights of qualitative social science that are needed to identify meaning from the correlations observed in Big Data

Big Data-some questions for societies▶To what extent have Learned Societies own

internal debates featured Big Data issues to date?

▶Have Learned Societies outside of social science made approaches (or been contacted) to explore issues of mutual concern?

▶Do Societies see there are specific further steps the ESRC should take in the Big Data area?

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Horizon 2020 and Social Science

Horizon 2020-opportunities for social science▶Nearly €80 billion over seven years, 2014-

2020▶First calls: 11 December 2013▶Will cover funding previously provided

through Framework Programme Seven (FP7) and Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT)

▶Should be worth £30m pa for UK social science…

Horizon 2020-opportunities for social science▶Excellent Science:–European Research Council - Frontier

research by the best individual led teams €13,800m–Marie Curie Actions-Opportunities for

training and career development €5,600m–Research infrastructures (including e-

infrastructures) Ensuring access to world-class facilities €2,500m

Horizon 2020-opportunities for social science▶Societal Challenges: €30,500m– Health, demographic change & wellbeing €8,000m– Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry,

marine and maritime and inland water research and the bioeconomy €4,000m

– Secure, clean and efficient energy €5,800m– Smart, green and integrated transport €6,800m– Climate action, resource efficiency and raw

materials €3,200m– Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies

€1,200m– Secure and innovative societies €1500m

Horizon 2020-opportunities for social science▶Secure, clean and efficient energy–Socioeconomic research on energy

efficiency–The human factor in the energy system

▶Smart, green and integrated transport–Transport societal drivers–User behaviour and mobility patterns in

the context of major societal trends

Horizon 2020-opportunities for social science▶Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies– New ideas, strategies and governance for Europe– The young generation in an innovative– Inclusive and sustainable Europe– Europe as a global actor– New forms of innovation

▶But social science issues can become ICT centric!

▶Horizontal measures pushed into this Challenge▶Sam Riches at ESRC represents UK on

governance

Other international challenges / opportunities▶EU Data Protection Regulation– Need to safeguard exemption for research

▶Political attack on NSF social science– Requirement that all political science projects will

benefit national security or US economic interests

▶NSF / RCUK SBE Lead Agency agreement– Allows US and UK researchers to submit a single

collaborative proposal with a single review process

▶Emerging Powers opportunities

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Open Access update

Open Access update-RCUK policy▶“Free and open access to publicly-funded research

offers significant social and economic benefits. The Government, in line with its overarching commitment to transparency and open data, is committed to ensuring that such research should be freely accessible. As major bodies charged with investing public money in research, the Research Councils take very seriously their responsibilities in making the outputs from this research publicly available – not just to other researchers, but also to potential users in business, charitable and public sectors, and to the general public”.

Open Access update-RCUK policy▶Journey to full Open Access is a process

and not a single event; compliance will grow over next five years

▶Comprehensive review of the effectiveness and impact of its Open Access policy in 2014, 16, 18

▶Mindful that the impact varies by discipline – hence the different embargo periods across the disciplines supported by the Research Councils

Open Access RCUK policy

▶RCUK-funded research papers must be Open Access▶Gold– Immediate and unrestricted access to the final published version

of the paper using the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence

– May involve payment of an ‘Article Processing Charge’ (APC)

▶Green– Deposit final Accepted Manuscript in a repository, without

restriction on non-commercial re-use and within a defined period (no APC)

– Delay of no more than 6months between on-line publication and the final Accepted Manuscript becoming Open Access (12 months HASS

– Where funding for APCs is unavailable to an author during the transition period, longer embargo periods will be allowable

Open Access update-policy issues▶Working with the AcSS to map the activities of social

science Learned Societies and begin to ascribe value (just reported)– Phase 2 could look at the potential impact of OA on these

activities

▶ESRC represented on HEFCE OA Monograph Working Group– Gathering evidence to inform how monographs might be treated

▶RCUK is monitoring the international position– US is mainly green– EU has balanced support for both Green and Gold– Netherlands has followed RCUK line with preference for Gold

▶No evidence that institutional allocations are not being made available to social scientists?

ESRC Annual Meeting with Learned Societies-Any Other Business?