The Association for Research in the Voluntary and Community Sector (ARVAC) in partnership with Islington Voluntary Action Council (IVAC) are hosting a half day seminar on community research on November 11th.
The seminar includes presentations from eminent speakers from policy, academia and practice and a number of practical workshops covering diverse issues related to conducting community research. Read the rest of this entry »
Bassac are looking for a PhD intern to carry out a key research project into community groups and local democracy. This will involve exploring how the work of community anchors can strengthen local democracy, how they can link citizens with local councillors and what barriers stand in the way of their engagement with the elective democratic process.
You must be an ESRC funded PhD student in your second or third year of study, or part-time equivalent, and available to begin the internship from mid Jan/early Feb 2010. Applications are open now, with a deadline of 30 September 2009.
For full details of this opportunity and how to apply please go to: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Support
/postgraduate_students/BASSAC.aspx
For more information about bassac go to: http://www.bassac.org.uk/
Thank you to everyone who came along to the new researchers’ sessions at the NCVO/VSSN conference this year. Loads of great presentations and discussion - a really useful couple of days. For future events watch this space…..
The ESRC PhD Internship Scheme is now live. This has been designed to provide current ESRC funded PhD students with the opportunity to carry out a 3 month placement with an organisation in the Public, Private or Third (Voluntary) sector.
All of the opportunities have been posted online on the following page: http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Support/postgraduate_students/Internships.aspx
These opportunities will remain open until the 30th September 2009
This year at the NCVO/VSSN conference the new researchers’ session is going to be run over two days on September 7th and 8th.
We have a great line up this year with 13 presentations from new career researchers on a wide range of topics (see programme below). We will also have two guest speakers - Jenny Harrow, Co-Director of the ESRC Research Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy, who will be talking about using theory in research and Fiona Armstrong, Head of Knowledge Transfer at the ESRC.
This might be interesting:
25th June; Social Research as a Career; Pathways for early career researcher. This highly interactive session will look at pathways and options for early career researchers and how the SRA can assist. See www.the-sra.org.uk for more info.
A special session is being run for new career researchers at the NCVO/VSSN Voluntary Sector Researchers Conference on September 7th at Warwick University. There will be seven presentations on a range of topics related to the voluntary sector and volunteering. If you are coming along only to this session it is totally free, but please email joanna.stuart@volunteeringengland.org to let her know you will be coming.
A preliminary programme for the session will be available in early July.
If you were hoping to submit an abstract for this session I’m afraid we have now hit the deadline but please do come along!
Each year at the NCVO/VSSN Voluntary Sector Researchers Conference a special session is run for researchers who are relatively new to the voluntary sector. We are now inviting abstracts from all those interested in presenting at the event. The session will be held on the afternoon of 7th September.
Please send an abstract of 200 to 400 words to joanna.stuart@volunteeringengland.org by May 22nd. We will then let you know if your abstract has been accepted by May 29th. Whether you are a post-graduate student or researcher in the sector we really encourage you to submit an abstract as it is a great opportunity to share your research and to meet others in the field. If you are only coming the the new researchers’ session it is absolutely free!
Presentations are typically 10 minutes long with a further 10 minutes for discussion. You need not discuss a completed project – work in progress or preliminary findings would be welcome. Papers on methodologies or issues faced carrying out research are also welcome.
The Charity Commission has recently published some interesting research looking at the impact of the economic downturn on charities. The research involved 1,003 telephone interviews and found that:
- 52% of charities reported that they have been affected so far by the economic downturn
- Of those affected, 58% reported a reduction in income
- 20% of charities reported an increase in the demand for their services or charitable activities
The Economic Survey of Charities can be found at:
http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/common/downturn.pdf
This website, which brings togther civil society and third sector research looks useful: http://www.civilsociety.se
StudentCorner is aimed at researchers, PhD candidates and other students in Europe and focuses on publications, programmes, places, people and PhD resources.
The Centre for Nonprofit Management is organising its next summer school on 16-17 June 2009 in Dublin (Fee: €250, includes dinner)
This year the topic is Philanthropy in Ireland. The Summer School will provide an opportunity to further deepen an ongoing conversation about the nature and practice of philanthropy.
Further information will soon be available from: http://www.cnm.tcd.ie
Hey,
New member here.
What are people’s thoughts on Online Survey providers.
I would like to produce one cheaply. (Shock Horror)!
Does any one know of any free providers, or would any body be able to recommend any software?
Thanks!
For the latest information on the ESRC’s public policy seminar series visit the ESRC website here. This includes information about the session on February 13th 2009 on the recession and the third sector being organised by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and ESRC.
Call for papers
Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers Annual International Conference: Manchester, 26th – 28th August 2009.
A session is being planned at the above conference on ‘Volunteering: the making of communities?’
Please submit any questions and abstracts (of approximately 250 words) to Mike Woolvin (m.r.woolvin@dundee.ac.uk). For further information about the conference look here
May 28-31, 2009, Leuven, Belgium
This call is directed toward PhD students from European universities doing research on civil society and third sector issues.
What is the Ph.D. network about?
The meeting is an opportunity for young academics to get to know fellow researchers from across Europe and to discuss their research in small working groups. In addition, the program consists of plenary lectures addressing both scientific themes and practical issues. The active participation of academic staff and graduated PhD students also allows for informal discussion about academic work and (post-)doctoral life. Former network meetings were held in Windsor (2001 & 2002), Dublin (2003), Stockholm (2004), Rolduc (2005), Vienna (2006), Münster (2007), and Kaunas (2008).
We had some really fantastic ideas from the recent new researchers’ session at the NCVO/VSSN conference in September about how we could develop this site. We are currently working on implementing these including having a new section for resources. Do you have any ideas about how we could improve it and make it as useful as possible? Please post your thoughts!!!
We are having temporary problems uploading documents, so it hasn’t been possible to post the presentations from the latest new researchers’ session yet but we are hoping these will be available soon!
Funding will soon be available for UK HEIs and Independent Research Institutes (approved by the ESRC) to set up seminars to advance research knowledge and sharing. The seminars should be multi-institutional groups of academic researchers, postgraduate students and non-academic users. The competition is likely to open in October 2008.
Thanks to all of you who came along to the new researchers event at the NCVO/VSSN conference on September 9th. It really was such a useful and thought provoking afternoon with loads of interesting discussion. Please keep those discussions going here!! The presentations raised lots of useful questions and issues so please post your thoughts……
We will be posting the presentations from the conference on this site over the coming week.
A PhD studentship funded jointly by EPSRC and ESRC on New Residential Developments and Quality of Life in South East England is now being advertised. For more info please see the link below.