Funding opportunities

• DFID-ESRC Growth Programme pre call
• Library of Congress Scholarship Scheme
• Pilot Business and Third Sector Internship Scheme
• More funding opportunities

£24 million for 2012 Birth Cohort Study

The Research Councils have secured funding of £24 million from the Department of Business Innovation and Skills to support the design and launch of a major new Birth Cohort Study around 2012.

Society Now

Society Now, the ESRC's regular magazine, will be published on the ESRC website on Wednesday 16 March. Main features include early Understanding Society findings, education and social mobility, and the complex risks of staging the London 2012 Olympic games.

LARCI web resources

The Local Authorities & Research Councils' Initiative's upgraded website provides easy access to LARCI services and related RCUK research, organising Research Council centres, programmes and knowledge transfer scheme outputs by topic areas.

Media training for PhD and postdoc researchers

The ESRC has restarted its one day media training courses for PhD and postdoc researchers, which are designed to equip you with all the basic skills you need to disseminate your research to the public via the media.

ESRC Festival of Social Science

Following review and feedback from participants the ESRC Festival of Social Science will be held 29 October - 5 November 2011. Call for organiser applications will open in April.

Understanding Society: early findings

The first findings of the Understanding Society study have been published, covering a wide range of areas of people's lives and experiences - including family life, the nation's sleep patterns and people's attitude to climate change.

Administrative Data Liaison Service publication hub

This ADLS facility has recently been improved, enabling search for research publications that have used administrative data on the ADLS website.

Events

• 29/3/11: Launch of the Secure Data Service
• 6/4/11: BSA 2011 Annual Conference
• 4/5/11: Data management planning and practices for Research Centres and Programmes
• 10/5/11: Introductory workshop on NCDS and BCS70 studies
• More events

People

We are sad to announce the passing of Professor Phil Levy, who died in Winchester on 23 January 2011. A skilled statistician and professor of psychology, he chaired three consecutive Social Science Research Council (now ESRC) research committees from 1979 to 1989, and in 1986 he co-chaired the psychology panel for the first Research Assessment Exercise.

Professor John Dupré, Director of the ESRC Centre for Genomics in Society (Egenis), has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was elected for his contribution to the history and philosophy of science, particularly Darwinian theory.