Dr Moles is interviewed as part of the Emotional Geographies Conference at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. The International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Emotional Geographies took place on 1st – 3rd July 2013 at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands.  The event is the fourth is a series that provides a forum for a…

Amy Jones from Swansea University wins the PhD student Poster Competition at the WISERD Annual Conference. Amy Jones, a PhD student from Swansea University, was delighted to win the PhD Student Poster competition at this year’s WISERD Annual Conference. The competition was part of a research poster exhibition at Wales’ largest social science conference.  Hosted…

This year’s WISERD Annual conference was a great success with nearly 150 delegates and over 80 papers presented, cementing the event as the largest social science conference in Wales.  Academics and non-academics from a diverse range of disciplines and areas of interest shared their research at the two-day event at the University of South Wales…

Research, funded by WISERD, finds workers in Wales are happier than workers elsewhere in Britain, despite jobs being lower paid and less skilled. Report findings from the Skills and Employment Survey 2012 were launched at the event: Work, Skills and Well-being in Wales yesterday. Work, Skills and Well-being in Wales: First Findings from the Skills and…

Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies discussion following the launch of their research on the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey. They found that workers in Wales are paid less than elsewhere in Britain and do lower skilled jobs, but they were the happiest and most committed. Wales Online BBC News ESRC

Professor Alan Felstead and Rhys Davies discussion following the launch of their research on the 2012 Skills and Employment Survey. They found that workers in Wales are paid less than elsewhere in Britain and do lower skilled jobs, but they were the happiest and most committed. Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/cardiff-university… BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23223035 ESRC – http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/publications/magazin…

  WISERD is delighted to announce the first in a series of podcasts about WISERD projects and research activity. Click here to listen to Dr Kate Moles and Dr Alex Morgan talk about their three year evaluation of Pori Drwy Stori, a bilingual reading intervention designed to raise educational outcomes for young children by increasing…

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/23052939

Following a FOI, research from Professor Gareth Rees and Professor Chris Taylor featured in The Observer regarding an Inclusive Higher Education System. The Guardian article can be accessed by following the link below. https://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/jun/16/accesstouniversity-private-schools

The Welsh Government will be hosting a session at the WISERD 2013 Annual Conference which will afford attendees the opportunity to learn more about the Office for National Statistics Beyond 2011 Consultation on the future of the Census programme.  Attendees will be updated on progress on the programme, and be given the opportunity to feedback…

Dr Martin O’Neill and Professor David Blackaby both appeared on the BBC’s The Wales Report.  Dr O’Neill discussed how EU Funding impacts the Valleys community and Professor Blackaby commented on working hours in Wales.

Professor Lindsay Paterson, Professor Laura McAllister and Professor David Martin to give Keynote Speeches at Annual Conference. Keynote speakers for WISERD’s fourth annual conference have been confirmed.  Discussing topics on national identity; devolution; and the Census, the three speakers will deliver their keynote address to an audience of academic, policy, public, private and third sector…

WISERD Director, Professor Gareth Rees, was one of a panel of speakers involved in a What Works Wales event on Friday 17th May.  The event was organised by the Alliance for Useful Evidence in collaboration with the Big Lottery Fund and in partnership with Wales Public Services 2025. The seminar was the Alliance’s first event…

Delegates join distinguished keynote speakers for special Census debate   A unique opportunity to discuss the Census will take place at the Annual Conference for the Wales Institute for Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD). Now in its fourth year, the WISERD Annual Conference is Wales’ largest social science conference; bringing practitioners, policy…

On 7 May 2013, WISERD held a Longitudinal Research Event, designed to showcase some examples of longitudinal research taking place in and on Wales. The Exploiting the Potential of Longitudinal Research Resources for Wales seminar took place earlier this month with great success. The aim of the event was to contribute to the development of…

Research Director, Professor Chris Taylor presented his findings on the relationship between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) at Cardiff University’s Policy Café last night (26th March). The event followed the release of the report: Relationships between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) from the Welsh Government…

Professor Chris Taylor is interviewed  on his research for the Welsh Government report: Relationships between the Welsh Baccalaureate Advanced Diploma (WBQ) and Higher Education (HE) Wales Online – https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-bacc-inflates-pupil-achievements-2513441 BBC News – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-21935983 ITV News – http://www.itv.com/news/wales/update/2013-03-26/welsh-bacc/

Tracking the progress of Assisted Place holders thirty years on Co-Director Professor Sally Power will lead on a new research project, awarded to WISERD by the Sutton Trust, which will look into the progress of Assisted Place holders. The research aims to explore the long-term impact of the Assisted Places Scheme on beneficiaries’ occupational and…

Interview regarding the Unequal Wales Seminar: Inequalities in Access to Higher Education can be seen on Wales Online website (link below) https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/share-least-well-off-uni-still-2512987

Professor Chris Taylor’s is interviewed by TES Cyrmu following his Assembly Briefing on the Millennium Cohort Study. https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/academic-rejects-schooled-fail-theory-2495925

A report written by academic staff at WISERD Swansea, entitled ‘An analysis of subjective wellbeing in Wales: Evidence from the Annual Population Survey’, was published by the Welsh Government on 31st October 2012. This report examines Annual Population Survey (APS) data containing new questions on Subjective Wellbeing (SWB). It focuses on comparisons between variations in SWB across…

The number of people in Wales claiming help from councils for homelessness has gone up for the second year running. Figures show more than 19,000 people said they had nowhere to live, a rise of about 27% on the previous year. However, Cardiff University lecturer Dr Peter Mackie, who is also the chair of the WISERD…

WISERD has secured a £1M investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERD EDUCATION. This Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded project has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

WISERD and the Institute of Welsh Politics are jointly hosting a seminar series on the subject of ‘Knowing Wales’. Led by prominent figures from across the social scientists and delivered at Aberystwyth University over the next 12 months, sessions focus on the shifting social, economic and political landscape of Wales in the 21st century, with…

Professor David Blackaby, of WISERD Swansea and Swansea University, has been interviewed by the South Wales Evening Post about  job cuts by Tata. The steel company announced last Friday (23rdNovember) that 500 mainly white collar jobs would be lost at the steel plant in Port Talbot. In the interview Professor Blackaby stated that, although jobs…

Professor Gareth Rees, Director of the Wales Institute of Social Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD), has recently commented in the Western Mail on this year’s GCSE exam figures. The figures, released last week, show that 70.8% of Welsh pupils achieved the Level 2 threshold overall this summer, up from 67.3% last year. The proportion of…

The Call for Papers for the fourth annual WISERD conference is now open. The WISERD 2013 Conference will take place on 25th and 26th June at the University of Glamorgan, attracting colleagues from academic, policy, public, private and third sectors. Following on from three successful events in Cardiff, Swansea and Bangor; the WISERD conference has become…

WISERD has successfully secured a £1m investment into the development of education research in Wales with the establishment of WISERDEDUCATION. The Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) funded programme has the potential to change the landscape of education research in Wales and will put Wales at the forefront of research capacity building developments in…

Dr Robin Mann is interviewed for the BBC about his research on Public Sentiments towards immigration in Wales.  

A report for the Welsh Government carried out by WISERD researchers has revealed that a larger proportion of people in Wales hold negative views on immigration compared with other parts of the UK. The final report for the Welsh Government New Ideas Social Research Fund project entitled ‘Public Sentiments Towards Immigrants and Minorities: The Difference…

A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation carried out by WISERD researchers and members of the WISERD housing thematic network in the School of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University has revealed that increasing numbers of young people are going to be forced into the private rented sector over the coming decade if they want…

Professor Gareth Rees is interviewed about the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification on BBC Radio Wales.

Launch of Audio Walks resources in Grangetown is announced in Western Mail

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate…

Cardiff School of Social Sciences has officially launched the European Commission funded NESET website – NESETweb – a Europe-wide online resource aimed at supporting the development of better and fairer education across the European Union. NESET, which stands for the Network of Experts on Social aspects of Education and Training, has launched the website to…

The resources from an innovative project which used audio walks to create a sense of community in one of Cardiff’s inner-city neighbourhoods, are being launched at an event next week. The ‘Sounding the Way: Audio Walking in Cardiff’s Urban Neighbourhoods’ project was funded in 2010 by the Beacon for Wales and led by Dr Kate Moles…

WISERD recently co-organised a special symposium on Qualitative GIS at the 2012 annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) in New York.  The AAG conference is one of the largest in the world, attracting an average 7000-8000 international participants. The symposium was organised by Stephen Burgess (WISERD, Cardiff); Mei-Po Kwan (Ohio State University);…

Cynhadledd Gwyddorau Cymdeithas Bangor ar Intersectionality a Pherthyn (28-29 Mehefin) Ddydd Iau a dydd Gwener, 28 a 29 Mehefin, bydd Prifysgol Bangor yn cynnal cynhadledd ryngwladol yn edrych ar themâu  intersectionality a pherthyn. Mae’r gynhadledd yn ddigwyddiad ar y cyd rhwng Ysgol Gwyddorau Cymdeithas Prifysgol Bangor, Sefydliad Ymchwil, Data a Methodoleg Gymdeithasol ac Economaidd Cymru…

In February this year, WISERD’s Housing Reference Group teamed up with the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning’s Innovation and Engagement Unit and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) to host a public lecture on the future of homelessness policy in Wales. The lecture entitled ‘The Future of Homelessness Policy in Wales: Learning Lessons from the States and the Scots’,…

Bydd un o’r digwyddiadau pwysicaf yng nghalendr y gwyddorau cymdeithasol ar gyfer pobl sy’n ymwneud â materion cymdeithasol ac economaidd yng Nghymru yn teithio i Fangor wythnos nesaf. Bydd trydedd cynhadledd flynyddol Sefydliad Ymchwil Gymdeithasol ac Economaidd, Data a Dulliau Cymru (WISERD) yn dwyn ynghyd ymchwilwyr y gwyddorau cymdeithasol, gwleidyddion, myfyrwyr ôl-raddedig a chynrychiolwyr o’r…

Professor Gareth Rees has offered his expertise to an article this week (March 12th, p.4) about the next Pisa (Programme for International Student Assessment) results in November. The article leads on Education Minster Leighton Andrews’ comments that he doesn’t expect Wales to show ‘real improvement’ in the school rankings because the Welsh Government’s new education…

WISERD are supporting two ESRC PhD awards as part of 11 fully-funded studentships with the Cardiff School of Social Sciences and the Doctoral Training Centre for Wales. Both studentships for the 2012/13 academic year will be in the field of education. The first topic will examine adult community learning participation and involvement in schooling and the second…

Front page news! The report into graduate mobility that found Wales has lower retention rates with regards to the proportion of students studying and staying to find work in Wales is the lead story in the Western Mail. The online copy, published by Wales Online, can be found through this link.  

A recent project on Welsh graduate mobility by WISERD researchers has been featured on the front page of the Western Mail today (January 5th 2012). The research project – ‘Stay, leave or return? Patterns of Welsh Graduate mobility’– was undertaken in collaboration with the ESRC Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance (SKOPE) and investigated the nature…

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…

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 to provide public engagement active academics funded by the…

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…

Research currently being undertaken by WISERD researchers Ian Thomas, Scott Orford and Peter Mackie in collaboration with the Cardiff School of City and Regional Planning and Shelter Cymru, has been reported on by The Observer, a sister paper to The Guardian. The research, entitled Young People and Housing: Identifying Policy Challenges and Solutions for 2020, looks to…

At the start of September 2010 Professor Gareth Rees, formerly of the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, was appointed as the new WISERD Director. Gareth told the Cardiff University media centre that he was looking forward to building on the success of WISERD, citing the importance of the institute’s role in the future…

The Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice (WCCSJ) is an all-Wales centre, formed by seven different universities. These include Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff, Glamorgan and Swansea, and therefore the centre has close links with WISERD. The launch of the centre has been reported by Cardiff University as an exciting new venture, allowing multiple Welsh universities…

The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Method (WISERD) has appointed a new Director, based at Cardiff University. Professor Gareth Rees will lead the Institute which aims to strengthen social science research capacity across Wales through cooperation, joint projects and associated links with centres of excellence across the UK and internationally. WISERD…

Dr Kate Moles, WISERD, Cardiff University; Dr Angharad Saunders, University of Glamorgan; Dorian Morgan and Aled Rowlands, BBC Wales have been working in the Ebbw Vale community to produce three audio walks around Ebbw Vale, through the voices, memories and stories of the residents.  There are three walks; an industrial walk overlooking the site of…

Dr Robin Mann (WISERD Bangor) will represent WISERD at the upcoming National Eisteddfod to be held in The Works, Ebbw Vale from 31 July to 7 August. He will deliver a presentation entitled WISERD: Changing the Research Landscape in Wales as part of the Cardiff University exhibition. WISERD will also be represented in the form…

The first WISERD summer conference “Knowing Wales: People, Place, Policy”, was held in Cardiff on the 28th and 29th of June 2010. Over a hundred delegates from higher education and the public and voluntary sectors across Wales were in attendance to listen to speakers engaged in social science research discussing topics as diverse as health…

Professor Michael Burawoy has become a regular visitor to Cardiff and he was with us once again in February to attend a WISERD Advisory Board meeting. His extended stay was facilitated by the Centre for Global Labour Research which provided Michael with a Montague Burton Visiting Fellowship. During his time in Cardiff, Professor Burawoy delivered…

The formal launch of WISERD took place at the Senedd Building on 22 October 2009. Present were a large audience of invited academics, policy makers and colleagues from non-governmental organisations.  Guests gathered to hear speeches made by the WISERD Director Huw Beynon, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research for Cardiff University Professor Teresa Rees, Chief Executive…