WISERD offered three events as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s week-long celebration of the social sciences and social science research. As with previous years’ events, the festival provided a variety of free activities across the UK.
One such event was hosted by WISERD in Cardiff and facilitated by Dr. Scott Orford. Representatives from the voluntary sector and civil society organisations came together with policy makers and researchers in a workshop exploring WISERD’s DataPortal. This free online tool allows users to search, discover, map and download socio-economic data. The event demonstrated the WISERD DataPortal and showed how researchers can use the programme to map their own data on the DataPortal and overlay it on other map layers, in order to compare their data with research data such as census data, and electoral data.
A Q&A session at the end of the workshop allowed participants to provide feedback and suggestions for further improvement. Those who weren’t able to attend the workshop watched a live webcast on the WISERD website and took part in a Q&A session on Twitter. Watch the recording to find out more.
Another festival event in Cardiff was hosted by WISERD researchers at Cardiff Business School to launch the Disability Talking film. The short film was constructed around first-person accounts of disability challenges and support at work, and the film’s interviewees represented a range of disabilities. Alongside the personal narratives were statistical summaries highlighting the scale of disability-related disadvantage in the contemporary workplace.
The event was led by Professors Melanie Jones and Victoria Wass, who were joined by a diverse line-up of speakers for the panel discussion afterwards. Each speaker had their own connection to the issue of dyslexia and were able to contribute personal, professional and legal experiences of coping in the workplace. The event also coincided with the launch of a new website designed to enhance engagement with research in this area: www.disabilityatwork.co.uk
The final event that took place as part of the festival, was a training event for those who work in the third sector. WISERD researchers provided materials aimed at helping participants learn how to formally evaluate their activities, identify the impact of their activities and provide an evaluation framework for those impacts.