The Research Methods Programme formed part of ESRC's strategy to improve the quality of research methods across the UK social science community. It was launched in October 2002 and ended in September 2007. The Programme aimed to develop quantitative and qualitative methods within the context of substantive research and to promote the effective dissemination of good practice through a range of related training activities. The Programme Director, Prof Angela Dale, is based in the Centre for Census and Survey Research at the University of Manchester.

About the Research Methods Programme

The programme funded a total of 22 substantive research projects and 16 training projects which fall under three broad themes:

• research design and data collection and quality
• multi-media integration and retrieval
• data analysis including longitudinal and pathway analysis; network analysis; evidence based policy and evaluation methods; analysing text, discourse, narrative and visual data; integrating multiple methods and migration and spatial analysis.

The programme's training activities included:

• training in quantitative and qualitative methods
• online resources for quantitative and qualitative analysis
• training in mixed methods and research design.

Many of these activities are being continued under the Researcher Development Initiative (RDI) and by the National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) and arelisted in the research methods events database held by NCRM.

How to access this resource

The programme is not funding new activities, but details of funded projects, methods briefings which relate to each project, and links to online resources are available on the RMP website.

Specific resources include: 

• An events archive provides details of all seminars and workshops organised by the programme directorate. These usually have overheads attached and, in some cases, papers or summaries.
• Online resources - these include Methods Briefings and Working Papers that can be downloaded as PDFs, and also links to online resources developed by projects, for example for help with analysing missing data in surveys, using design factors in surveys, analysing qualitative data and using online methods.
• Bursaries for training are being continued by the National Centre for Research Methods
• The Methods Festival is being continued by the National Centre for Research Methods. Details of the 2004 and 2006 festivals can be found on the RMP website

Download the Research Methods Programme information sheet (PDF, 189Kb)

Further information

• ESRC Research Methods Programme
  Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, School of Social Science, University of Manchester, Crawford House, Manchester M13 9PL
  Email: r.durrell@manchester.ac.uk
  Telephone: +44 (0)161 275 4891
  Fax: +44 (0)161 275 4722
  
• ESRC resources team
  Email: esrcresources@esrc.ac.uk
  Telephone: 01793 413180