Final report - Executive summary
Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) was a four year (2003-2007) research networking programme, designed to strengthen human capacity in Europe to use quantitative techniques in research in the social sciences. The programme was targeted at junior researchers in the nineteen participating countries and sought to foster the development of a new generation of methodologists and quantitative social scientists.
The core of the programme consisted of a series of twelve nine-day events, run over the summers of 2004, 2005 and 2006, where seven-day training workshops were integrated with two day research seminars. The workshops provided training in a field of quantitative methods, and typically consisted of instructional sessions in the mornings, led by two senior researchers of high international standing, followed by computer-based sessions in the afternoons, where a course assistant supported the senior researchers. A key aim of the programme was to strengthen the capability of researchers to analyse social and economic datasets and the computer-based sessions focussed on the analysis of a range of pan-European datasets, such as the European Social Survey. In the last two days of the workshop/seminars, additional senior researchers were invited to present research papers related to the topic of the workshop. Their papers helped to widen the range of applications which participants met in the workshops as well as to enable participants to appreciate the ‘research frontiers’ of the methodological field.
The thematic foci of the programme were developed by first identifying five methodological topic areas and then constituting topic teams of senior researchers from across Europe to cover each of these areas. The teams led the identification of topics and instructors for the workshop/seminars and helped in the selection of junior participants.
Participants in the workshop/seminars were recruited through an annual competition. In total, 300 junior researchers participated, an average of 25 at each event. It was possible to participate each year and the figure of 300 represents 265 individual researchers of whom 231 participated in one workshop/seminar and 34 more than once.
The workshop/seminars were followed up in a number of ways to foster networking. Participants at workshop/seminars could apply for support to undertake short visits to prepare joint research papers using the methods studied at the workshop/seminar. These visits generally consisted of two junior researchers from different countries with one of the researchers hosting the visit of the other researcher, although occasionally more than two were involved. Such short visits were completed by 58 junior researchers.
Participants at 2004 and 2005 workshop/seminars were also invited to apply for support to participate in the Research Methods Festival, held in Oxford in summer 2006. Papers or posters were presented there by 20 QMSS junior researchers.
The programme culminated in a conference in Prague in June 2007, again targeted at the junior researchers who had participated in the workshop/seminars, but also opening up the programme to a wider audience. There were 80 participants in total. The programme featured many parallel sessions where the junior researchers presented papers, building on what they had learnt from the programme. In addition, the programme featured nine invited papers from internationally leading researchers, including overview papers for each of the five QMSS topic areas.
To build capacity in research methods requires long-term investment. In recognition of this fact and of the success of QMSS in addressing this objective, members of the Steering Committee and the topic teams joined together to submit a proposal to ESF, building on the experience of QMSS, for a research networking programme, denoted QMSS2.
Aims of the QMSS programme
In the past few years it has been increasingly evident that European universities and colleges are not producing quantitatively competent social scientists in sufficient numbers. This comes at a time when the need to base government policy, at all levels, on sound scientific information is becoming fully accepted and where, across Europe, significant investments are being made in the large and complex datasets necessary to inform such policy. This programme aims to strengthen the human capacity in Europe to analyse such datasets, in particular by encouraging the development of pan-European networks of junior researchers.
Duration of Programme
4 years, from 1 July 2003 to 30 June 2007.
