Scoping the skills needs in the social sciences to support data-driven research

This is a Prior Information Notice for a UK Research and Innovation requirement. The tender is to scope the skills needs in the social sciences to support data-driven research and identify where additional investment is necessary.

The scoping work will be required to adopt a whole-career perspective, reflecting the skills required and opportunities to build capacity at different stages of researchers' career. The contractor will be expected to take into account the breadth of the social sciences when considering the range of data to be exploited, different disciplines' needs and the implications for training in other areas.

The route to market will be via Contracts Finder. Please refer to attachment 'Scoping the skills needs in the social sciences to support data-driven research' for more information.

A market engagement event will be held on Tuesday, 12th May 2020 between 10:00 - 11:30, via Zoom. This will provide an opportunity for potential providers to find out more about the aims of the project and the procurement process.

Providers wishing to attend need to RSVP by 15:00, Thursday, 7th May 2020 - stating their name, title, email. Please ensure that the subject heading for the email is as follows: 'Data-driven research: skills needs in the social sciences'.

It is anticipated that the tender documentation will be released in late May 2020. Additional information: Summary We want to ensure social scientists have the skills and capacity to fully exploit the increasing volume of large and complex data available for research purposes and maximise the value of our investment in data and infrastructure.

While our long term comprehensive spending review settlement is not yet known (and therefore the scale of any new investment) it is vital that any additional investment is informed by an up to date and holistic understanding of current and future skills needs, the extent to which they are being met by current investment ( by ESRC/UKRI and other funders) and where there are gaps. As a first step we would like to appoint a team to lead a piece of work to a) scope the specific capacity building needs in the social sciences to support data-driven research; and b) identify where additional investment is needed.

Findings and recommendations will be presented to ESRC in a report. This work will directly inform our review of the PhD in the social sciences and the development of our Postgraduate Training Strategy post 2022, including the updating of our Postgraduate Training and Development Guidelines which set out our training requirements for all students.

There may also be learning from our review of the PhD in the social sciences that will be relevant to this scoping activity. It is therefore important that the appointed team actively engages with the contractors who are undertaking our review of the PhD to ensure mutual benefit to both pieces of work. This scoping work will need to be completed by the end of April 2021.