Economic and Social Research Council

	Chief Executive's Statement by Dr Gordon Marshall

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the United Kingdom's leading independent research funding agency for the social sciences. Our role is to ensure authoritative and rigorous research of the highest quality, which addresses all aspects of human and social life in Britain and the wider world.

The three principles - quality, relevance and independence - define our role and how we add value to public support for research.

The relevance of ESRC's work to national issues in the UK is provided by our Thematic Priorities. The priorities are based on three-yearly UK-wide consultation exercises with academic and users from all sectors. We are currently addressing our seven new themes, which are described below, through funding new research programmes and centres.

The 2000 Spending Review resulted in a major boost to ESRC's annual budget of 13.6 per cent over the next three years. This means that we can now make key investments in support of the Thematic Priorities, particularly in the fields of genomics, where there are major social issues emerging, and management research. We will also be able to boost the number of people in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland included in the Millennium Cohort and in the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). Overall, we will be strengthening our commitment to fund the highest quality research and the capacity of the social sciences in the UK to achieve international levels of excellence.

Achieving quality in research underlies both its effectiveness in increasing our knowledge, and its potential for impact on the development and implementation of policy in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The ESRC will be continuing to build on its work to maximise the impact of social science research through communication programmes and resources such as the recently established UK Centre for Evidence-based Policy. We will also be working closely with the Foresight Programme to take forward the outcome of its sector panels.

Social scientists in the UK have been very successful in receiving support from the Fifth Framework Programme. We will continue to run events and to produce publications to help encourage social science to participate, and we will engage in the development of the Sixth Framework Programme for the benefit of UK social science.

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