ESRC Society Today

Embargoed until 00:01hrs Tuesday 13th March 2007

'Internet for Social Welfare', a workshop to be held at Edinburgh University on Monday March 12th from 10.30am, is a free 'hands-on' session for social work and social care researchers, lecturers and practitioners interested in using the Internet to enhance their research and teaching. Organised by Intute as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, it will feature presentations and live Internet demos, with participants road-testing leading UK on-line services in the 'PC Lab'.

Intute, launched in 2006 as a consortium of universities working with partner organisations, is a free Internet service providing access to the very best web resources for education and research, selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists. Funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) with support from ESRC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Intute services are developed in collaboration with staff from over 70 universities, colleges and research institutions across the UK.

Angela Joyce of Intute explained: "Internet search engines are often the first choice for people wanting to find specific information, but with millions of resources available on the Internet it can be difficult to find relevant and appropriate material - even when you've got good search skills and use advanced search engines. 

"Intute works to make the process simpler by evaluating and selecting resources in a range of subject areas, and making them available free of charge on one website to researchers, academics, students and others with an interest in social sciences. It's built by people, not just computers. We also help users to develop their skills to find and use this information themselves, and the workshop will show people exactly what we can offer them, and give them the chance to try us out."

Edinburgh is home to a number of events in the Festival, which is running alongside National Science and Engineering Week from 9th 18th March. As well as 'Internet for Social Welfare', the city hosts two meetings of the ESRC Genomics Forum at the University of Edinburgh on Monday 12 March and Wednesday 14 March, and 'Mental Health and Public Policy' at the Royal Society of Edinburgh on 14 March.  

For further information contact: 

• Angela Joyce (Tel: 0117 928 7085, email: angela.joyce@bristol.ac.uk)
• ESRC Press Office: 
  • Alexandra Saxon (Tel: 01793 413032/07971027335, email: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk)
  • Annika Howard (Tel: 01793 413119, email: annika.howard@esrc.ac.uk)  

Notes for editors

1. A consortium of seven universities working with partners, Intute exists to advance education and research by promoting the best of the Web in one easily accessible place, providing access to quality resources through a process of evaluation and collaboration. For more on Intute, and the 'Internet for Social Welfare' workshop visit http://www.intute.ac.uk/
2. The Festival of Social Science is organised by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), and runs from March 9th to 18th, alongside National Science and Engineering Week. It celebrates some of the very best British social science research, as well as highlighting the ways in which social science makes a difference to everyday lives. Press releases detailing some of the varied events are available at www.esrcfestival.ac.uk or for more information please contact the ESRC Press Office on 01793 413032 or via e-mail: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk
3. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2006-07 is £169 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/.
4. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/.