Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM, the former Presiding Officer of the National Assembly, will make a major speech to open an important social science conference in Bangor next year. The third annual Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) conference will bring together researchers, politicians and third sector agencies from Wales and…

Cardiff School of European Studies Cardiff’s large and successful School of European Studies is a vibrant multidisciplinary unit that specialises in the different histories, political systems, languages, literatures and cultural identities of Europe. In the most recent independent assessment of the quality of research in British universities, the School was ranked second in the UK…

Researchers at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) have secured a competitive tender from the Welsh Government to review homelessness legislation in Wales. This will be the most significant piece of homelessness research to be conducted in Wales and will directly inform the forthcoming Housing Bill to help improve…

In collaboration with the Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD) and the Cardiff School of Social Sciences , funded by the ESRC (Ref: RES-622-26-368) Talk of numbers with school teachers, most immediately think of their MAT (more able and talented) students who can ‘do maths’, but where does the social…

WISERD is pleased to support two events as part of the annual Festival of Social Science run by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The week-long festival (29 October – 5 November),  now in its ninth year, celebrates some of the country’s leading social science research, showcasing the valuable work of the UK’s social scientists…

Talk of numbers with school teachers, most immediately think of their MAT (more able and talented) students who can ‘do maths’, but where does the social science bit come in? On Wed 2nd November, in our ESRC Festival of Social Science event ‘Who are we? From local to global citizen’, we took on the challenge…

We are very pleased to announce that Dr Rhys Jones of Aberystwyth University is the new convenor of WISERD’s Language, Citizenship and Identity thematic reference group. Dr Jones succeeds Professor Graham Day of the School of Social Sciences at Bangor University. We would like to thank Professor Day for steering the group and for his…

WISERD wins £1M to evaluate “one of the most important educational policies since devolution in Wales” Researchers based at Cardiff University have secured a £1M bid – commissioned by the Welsh Government – to evaluate the Foundation Phase early years education policy. The high-profile team, led by researchers at the Wales Institute of Social and…

An innovative biomapping research project funded by WISERD was presented at the recent Royal Geographical Society / Institute of British Geographers Conference in London (31st August – 2nd September 2011). The annual event is the second largest geography conference in the world, attracting 1300 speakers and 1500 delegates. The research, devised and constructed by Dr…

An exciting project at WISERD is encouraging social science researchers to test and review new geoportal software. The WISERD Geoportal (WGP) initiative aims to develop a web-based software application to enhance a researcher’s ability to discover socio-economic research data relating to Wales. Run by the WISERD Data Integration Team, the WGP hopes to encourage collaborative…

As part of the second phase of the research programme, WISERD researchers have begun working on a series of mini-projects. These projects build on existing research undertaken by WISERD to date and enable further analysis of key themes and issues identified during the first phase of the WISERD research programme. The projects are diverse in…

Knowing Localities, the WISERD localities programme, is an integral part of the research being undertaken by WISERD. A key activity undertaken by the localities team over the past 24 months has been the stakeholder interview programme.  With the fieldwork now fully completed, and second stage analysis fully underway, WISERD research staff (and a wider tranche…

Professor Gareth Rees has been elected to the Fellowship of the Learned Society of Wales in the most recent round of nominations. Fellows are elected to the Society for demonstrating a record of excellence and achievement in academia and for making distinguished contributions to the world of learning that are used by other learned societies….

Residents of Grangetown in Cardiff are being encouraged to explore their neighbourhood through producing audio walks. The ongoing ‘Sounding the Way’ project funded by Beacon for Wales, is led by Dr Kate Moles of WISERD Cardiff and Angharad Saunders of Glamorgan University in conjunction with Voluntary Action Cardiff. As one of the more deprived areas…

The Welsh Government has announced that it will be supporting four research studies into the economy of Wales by awarding them with Economic Research Grants. These grants have been designed to help develop research capacity and widen knowledge of the economy in Wales by encouraging innovative, smaller-scale economic research. Researchers at WISERD will be involved…

On 28th and 29th June 2011 colleagues from across the WISERD partner Universities, invited speakers, representatives of voluntary organisations, postgraduate students and representatives from the public sector met in Swansea to present their work at the second WISERD conference. Over 140 delegates attended what is quickly becoming established as the major ‘shop window’ for social…

A conference was held on 10 June 2011 at Cardiff University to celebrate the work of foundation Director of WISERD, Huw Beynon. Huw has made a very important contribution to the sociological analysis of work-places, most notably through his studies of the motor car and coal industries. He has also conducted major studies of the…

On June 8th WISERD researchers delivered two ‘knowledge exchange’ workshops on behaviour change at a two-day event organised by Participation Cymru attended by stakeholders across Wales with an interest in public engagement with service delivery. An overview of the policy and political (UK Gov) terrain was firstly given by Jessica Pyket from the ‘Soft Paternalism’…

A special screening of Dr Gideon Koppel’s award-winning film Sleep Furiously, introduced by the Director himself, will be the preamble to the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods’ (WISERD) annual conference, held in Swansea next week. The screening, followed by a Q&A session with Dr Koppel, will take place at Swansea…

The Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods’ (WISERD) second annual summer conference, will reflect on the institute’s interdisciplinary working methods and feature an array of speakers from academia, central and local government, and third sector agencies. A key topic under discussion at the conference will be an analysis of the economic…

WISERD Cardiff Localities Co-ordinator, will discuss her research into hypermedia techniques in the generation of qualitative data at a seminar at London South Bank University on Tuesday 21st June 2011. The seminar, entitled ‘Using Digital Technologies in the Generation of Data’, will bring together a range of inter-disciplinary researchers, consultants and practitioners from a variety…

A successful networking event was held last month to launch WISERD’s Environment, Tourism and Leisure thematic reference group. ‘Community, Environment and Sustainability in Wales’ was held at Bangor University as part of Universities Week. The well attended event provided a network and knowledge exchange opportunity for grassroots activists, NGOs, policy makers and academics from across…

WISERD is funding a boost to the Skills and Employment Survey to be carried out across Britain in 2012.  The overarching aim of the survey is to collect data on skills and employment experiences of those working in Britain in 2012, making it a key and distinctive resource for research on contemporary working life. The…

On the 12th May 2011 a report entitled An Anatomy of Inequality in Wales, written by WISERD researchers for the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), was launched in Cardiff. The launch of the report, which has been described as ‘landmark’, had substantial coverage from a number of Welsh media outlets, including the BBC and…

Kate Moles and Angharad Saunders took part in a Beacon for Wales Projects Showcase in the National Assembly for Wales Pierhead building (Cardiff Bay) to showcase the Beacons funded Sounding the Way audio walks. The event highlighted the public engagement work of universities across Wales and provided public engagement active academics funded by the Beacon…

Wales’ leading universities have won a multi-million pound award to train top-level social scientists on a range of issues affecting society today. The establishment of a Doctoral Training Centre will allow 33 new postgraduate studentships to be offered every year in Wales for the next five years. The postgraduates will be trained in a range…