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DIUS announces the first social science project funded by the Large Facilities Capital Fund

£15.5 million funding for the world's largest longitudinal study of households was announced jointly today by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The study of 40,000 UK households - funded by the Large Facilities Capital Fund - will provide valuable new evidence on the people of the UK: their lives, experiences, behaviours, expectations and beliefs and how these change over time. The findings from the study will help to inform and evaluate long term policy decisions in areas as diverse as housing, health, and education.

The new UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS) will examine the impact of demographic changes on UK society. It will encompass nearly 100,000 individuals and will enable a much better understanding of people's lives and diversity of experiences over time and across generations.

Science and Innovation Minister, Ian Pearson, said:

This study will have enormous benefits for the UK's society and revolutionises our capacity to study areas such as poverty, migration, labour market dynamics, crime and ageing.

The depth and breadth of the study will provide an unrivalled evidence base for national and regional government. When analysing the research, we hope to open up major new opportunities for informed long term policy making on key topics such as responding to environmental change, tax and pensions, the provision of public services, health and education.

The UKHLS will replace the ESRC's existing longitudinal household study, the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) which was established in 1991. The 5,500 households from BHPS will be incorporated into the new study. The Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex which manages BHPS will also manage UKHLS.

The key benefits of UKHLS are:

  • Number of households: The much larger sample size will permit analysis of small sub groups such as teenage parents and allow analysis at regional and country level.
  • Household focus: Every adult and child over 11 will be interviewed annually, giving better and more continuous information on the family and household environment in which child development takes place.
  • Ethnic minorities: the sample will include an over representation of ethnic minority groups to provide a more detailed and meaningful analysis of the make up of UK society.
  • Health: the study will provide the opportunity to explore the social, economic and environmental factors affecting health.

DIUS is providing £12.5 million from the Large Facilities Capital Fund for the set up and design of the study and collection of data over a five year period from 2007 to 2012. The ESRC is providing a further £3 million. This is the first time the Fund has been used to fund a social science project.

Ian Diamond, Chief Executive of the ESRC, said:

Receiving funding from the Large Facilities Capital Fund demonstrates the ambitious scale and importance of this study, not just for the UK but internationally. It will transform our understanding of the complex trends occurring in UK society and will aid better more informed long term policy making.

This study not only dwarfs any other in the world but will also push the methodological boundaries of large datasets. It demonstrates the pre-eminence of UK social science in the international research community.

Notes to Editors

  1. Maintaining access to leading edge experimental facilities is a key element of keeping UK scientists at the forefront, and competitive, in their fields of research. DIUS' Large Facilities Capital Fund has an annual budget of approximately £100 M pa and is used to enable the UK Research Councils to fund investments in new and replacement large-scale scientific facilities. The Household Study dataset represents a substantial investment and the resultant dataset will be an important national resource and a capitalised asset - hence qualifying for the LFCF. Further information on the large facilities capital fund
  2. The Economic and Social Research Council, (ESRC) is one of seven UK Research Councils and funds research and training in social and economic issues. It supports independent, high quality research relevant to business, the public sector and voluntary organisations. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2007/08 is £181M. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More information can be found on ESRC's website
  3. In 2005 as part of its National Data Strategy, the ESRC conducted a major Strategic Review of Longitudinal Studies. The review noted that attrition had reduced the effective sample size of the current British Household Panel Study established in 1991. It was now inadequate to support analyses in some key areas and recommended an enlarged study of 40,000 households.
  4. In addition to the DIUS and the ESRC funding to 2012, the ESRC will provide further funding of £20.2 M to sustain the core component of the study over the period 2010-2017.
  5. The Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER) is an interdisciplinary institute, with specialists in demography, economics, sociology, social policy and social statistics. It is an independent department of the University of Essex and is core funded by the university and the ESRC. It specialises in the production and analysis of large and often complex datasets.