ESRC awards £8.26m to new centre led by Jane Falkingham
Professor Jane Falkingham is to lead one of six new ESRC research centres which will tackle critical social and economic issues – from evolving policing, to social care and intergenerational inequality.
Professor Falkingham will lead on ‘Connecting Generations’, exploring how issues such as living standards, jobs and pay, housing costs, taxes and benefits, work-life balance, and caring responsibilities are affected by population and generational changes.
‘Connecting Generations’ brings together experts from the University of Southampton, University of St Andrews, University of Stirling, University of Oxford, and the Resolution Foundation, as well as the Office for National Statistics and National Records of Scotland. Its remit will cover inequality in people’s opportunities and experiences, examining the impacts of gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic background, education, and geographical region, to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities.
Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic make the work of understanding existing inequalities, and foreseeing emerging inequalities, even more urgent. The team will work to understand the different impacts of Covid-19 and Brexit within and across generations, including how the ‘traditional’ stepping stones to adulthood have been affected by the pandemic.
Professor Falkingham comments: “I am delighted to be leading the new Connecting Generations partnership, and am excited to work with colleagues on this important topic for understanding societal change. It is a career highlight for me to be leading this esteemed team of experts, and I am thankful to the ESRC for recognising the value of this collaboration. We will have the opportunity to examine inequalities in life experiences, and why this matters for improving our society. This funding will enable us to provide research-based evidence to policymakers to address growing concerns around fairness between generations, particularly as we emerge from Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Professor Alison Bowes, a Co-Director of Connecting Generations and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Stirling, said: “The Stirling team is excited to be partners in the new Centre. Our work will focus on changing working practices, social care across the lifespan, intergenerational living and digital poverty and inclusion. All these issues are crucial for improving lives, locally, nationally and internationally.”
Mike Brewer, a Co-Director of Connecting Generations at the Resolution Foundation, said: “I am really pleased that the Resolution Foundation is part of the new ESRC-funded research centre, Connecting Generations. We will be contributing to the research programme, particularly on young generations' response to the pandemic, and we will be continuing our annual Intergenerational Audit.”
Professor Maria Evandrou, a Co-Director of Connecting Generations at the University of Southampton, said: “It is excellent that we get to join up in a strategic partnership as the Centre for Population Change, Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science and the Resolution Foundation to investigate Connecting Generations. I look forward to working with new, as well as established, colleagues on this exciting project.”
Professor Hill Kulu, a Co-Director of Connecting Generations at the University of St Andrews, said: “We are very delighted to have the opportunity to work with world-leading researchers from Southampton, Stirling, Oxford, and the Resolution Foundation on the cutting-edge topic of population change and fairness between generations... It is critical to understand how different generations provide support to each other across the different stages of their lives, and address existing inequalities and foresee emerging inequalities between and within generations in our societies.”
Professor Melinda Mills, a Co-Director of Connecting Generations at the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford, said: “Connecting Generations unites the top demography groups across the UK to look at intergenerational issues in a new way. The LCDS is delighted to join with our unique interdisciplinary and computational social science approach to explore intergenerational topics related to fertility, migration and assortative mating through the lens of genetics, genealogy and new forms of social media data.”
In total, the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is awarding a £49m boost to six new centres. These awards are being made following a highly competitive process run by the ESRC which was open to new research ideas from all areas of social science.
ESRC research centres are major strategic investments which take forward an ambitious research agenda to deliver real societal and economic impact. Also, to provide robust research evidence to support government decision making.
Professor Alison Park, interim executive chair of ESRC said: “We are delighted to announce the funding for these six centres, which demonstrate the excellence, breadth and relevance of social science research. They will all bring a fresh social science perspective on many issues of major public and policy interest and will provide robust research evidence that can be used by policymakers and practitioners.
“Not only are research centres major strategic investments which have significant economic and societal impact, but they also add value by increasing research infrastructure, building capacity, encouraging interdisciplinary working and enabling research collaboration in the UK and internationally to bring about change.”