Are you involved in a project that falls within the Economics and Social Research Council (ESRC) remit? Are you an early-career or junior researcher (PhD student)? Reach out and have your voice heard! 

The Software Sustainability Institute has been awarded funding to conduct a study to improve the understanding of how software and data are used by projects within the ESRC remit. 

We’re currently working on developing a survey that gives us an understanding of trends, gaps and differences in the use of digital research infrastructure among the ESRC research community. This will inform future approaches and help direct ESRC digital research infrastructure funding.

At this early stage, we’re looking for volunteers who are junior or early career researchers to tell us what questions you’d like to see and help us tailor our approach. We specifically want to know what information on the software and data landscape would be useful to you. This work is funded by ESRC, and as such we’re looking for researchers working for a UK-based institution. 

This is a great opportunity for people interested in shaping policy. We will be looking for contributions to the shaping of the survey from December onwards. These will be collected through a short questionnaire and/or a short interview. The survey itself is likely to be circulated to the community in February 2021. 

You can choose how you’d like to get involved in the form below, whether that’s opting to have only a short interview, both a questionnaire and an interview, or just replying to the survey once it’s circulated. 

In return for your participation, there will be three prize draws:

• 5x £30 shopping vouchers for people who respond to the questionnaire.
• 5x £30 shopping vouchers for people who respond to the survey.
• £50 shopping voucher for each person who participates in an interview – please note that we’re likely to limit the number of interviews we conduct. 

Sign up to participate in the shaping of the survey and for updates when the survey is circulated.