English

'Transforming' Social Science

Report this content

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is delighted to announce the 20 successful grants of the first Transformative Research Call, a pilot for 2012/2013.

The call aims to provide a stimulus for genuinely transformative and groundbreaking research ideas at the frontiers of social sciences.

We regard transformative research as involving pioneering theoretical and methodological innovation, the novel application of theory and methods in new contexts, and/or research based on the engagement of unusual disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Transformative research can be seen as high risk but with the possibility of high reward or research that is carried out with the expectation that it will produce a broad base of knowledge and new insights. The call trialed a mechanism (using face to face peer review) that enables research which challenges current thinking to be supported and developed.

One successful project will explore the relationship between city living and psychiatric disorder. Urban sociology is an area in which there is a strong links to the psychiatric and neurological sciences. At the same time, several groups of neruoscientists are currently working to establish the effects of 'urbanicity' (the effect of being born in a city) on the development of a psychiatric disorder.

Another project involved researchers from Bristol. They proposed that markings added to the DNA sequence that alters how genes are regulated, act not only as an index of previous exposures such as early life adversity, smoking or stress but may be linked to, and predictive of, future wellbeing.

Another research question will address 'How nonviolent grassroots networks can transform insecurity?' Researchers will explore ideas in relation to three existing nonviolent networks - neighbourhood watch to prevent suicide bomb attacks in Somalia; projects to record every casualty of armed conflict in many countries in the global South; and projects to stop the street harassment of women in the global North and South. The research will examine of how nonviolent grassroots networks relate to global governance.

Professor Paul Boyle, Chief Executive of ESRC comments: "We are committed to fostering and promoting greater transformative innovation and risk in the research that we support. This call is central to that ambition and will support the development of exciting research projects that have the potential to make significant contributions towards social science"

ESRC Press Office:

Notes for editors

  1. Grants started from 1 June 2013 and will last for a period of 18 months. For more information on successful grant holders go to www.esrc.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/26042/transformative-research-callsuccessful-grants.aspx
  2. Successful applicants will receive a grant of up to £250,000 (at 100 per cent fEC). In addition, host research organisations of successful applicants will receive a further £50,000 to spend on fostering future transformative research in the social sciences.
  3. Anonymous applications were assessed by a Commissioning Panel of relevant experts from the academic community. Shortlisted applicants were then invited to pitch their proposal at a 'Pitch to Peers' workshop in March 2013. 
  4. The Economic and Social Research Council is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC’s total budget for 2012/13 is £205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.

Sarah Nichols
Email: sarah.nichols@esrc.ac.uk
Telephone 01793 413122

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

Tags:

ESRC Economic and Social Research Council Transformative Research Call