Researcher Development Initiative (RDI), 2005 - 2010

01/12/08 - 30/11/10

This project aims at building and strengthening advanced quantitative skills repertoires for researchers and postgraduate students in the midlands area. The rationale for the activities provided by the project is centred on 'repertoires' of advanced quantitative techniques. Methodological competency involves not only an adequate knowledge of specific aspects of social science research methods, but also a breadth of such knowledge across a relatively wide spectrum. Repertoires are more than the sum of their component parts, but they do require the parts to be in place first. By focussing on a range of modules and techniques, the initiative is bolstering the quantitative repertoire of individual social scientists but also the repertoires of select institutional 'trainers to be trained' who are being encouraged to disseminate such knowledge and skills within their own institutions.

Taking an interdisciplinary focus, the project is constructing a unique blend of intensive two-day advanced training ‘clinics’ and accompanying e-learning modules. Topics include statistical reasoning, causal inference, data theory and measurement models, multivariate regression and segmentation analysis, handling missing data, modelling interdependent observations, and computer-aided text analysis (see the project website: http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/mdi/rdi/index.php) The suite of clinics is designed to both develop individual quantitative skills and to establish a network of methods trainers in the Midlands, culminating in a conference on teaching methods in 2010.

Principal Investigator: Professor Cees van der Eijk, University of Nottingham

Contact Details

Professor Cees van der Eijk, University of Nottingham

Email: cees.vandereijk@
nottingham.ac.uk
Tel: 0115 84 68150