Boost for e-Social Science (and obesity) with launch of new NCeSS nodes

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The National Centre for e-Social Science (NCeSS) has announced the launch of its second-phase research nodes. We asked June Finch for an overview of the new nodes.

Three new nodes (i.e. research projects) have been funded by NCeSS. The first new node, Obestity e-Lab (Manchester), will provide an infrastructure for research into Obesity. It will provide obesity researchers with access to health and social data, analysis tools and social networking opportunities. In particular, the Obestity e-Lab will develop tools which support transformation of the geographic basis of health records so that they can be compared with area-based social and economic measures.

The DAMES node (Stirling/Glasgow) expands upon the work of Geodek, a prior NCeSS small-grant project. The node’s objective is to provide a platform to support social scientists in their data-management tasks. Its goals range through data cleaning (finding inconsistencies), operationalising variables (coding or recoding across different data sets) and providing support for the linking of different data files. This work will be delivered through a web interface, and will be fully supported by a programme of training workshops.

The Lifeguide node (Southampton) aims to place the tools for internet-enabled behavioural interventions into the hands of the researcher. Through the Lifeguide website, researchers will be able to create, evaluate and develop websites to provide tailored individual advice with long-term support for individual change. By harvesting data about the people being supported from the website, researchers will be able to assess the efficacy of their interventions and tailor them to encourage improved outcomes.

In addition to the three new nodes, three phase-one nodes have been refunded (Policygrid, DReSS and OESS), and one node, GENeSIS has been formed from the merger of two phase-one nodes (Geovue and MoSeS ). The seven nodes will be joined in 2009 by an eighth, which will focus on support for quantitative social researchers. Together, the nodes promise a vibrant programme for e-Social Science.

June Finch, NCeSS.

www.ncess.ac.uk

www.tinyurl.com/63jxh6