The British Academy Skills Innovator Awards 2016

Age, period and cohort modelling: critiquing bad solutions, and coming up with practical suggestions for researchers

Dr Andrew Bell

Lecturer in Quantitative Social Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield Methods Institute

This project will examine three criteria that affect the way change occurs in people and society:

People age (A), Time passes (P)

Generations replace each other (C)

Each has different policy implications and will fund conferences for idea sharing and networking as well as training workshops and data analysis.

Award value: £14421

Introducing Q methodology to the analysis of soft power

Dr Valentina Feklyunina

Lecturer in Politics, Newcastle University, School of Geography, Politics and Sociology

This project will introduce an innovative quantitative method (‘Q-method’) to the analysis of soft power in International Politics. The final stage of the project involves development of a teaching manual and a series of publications.

Award value: £6610

Quantitative Text Analysis Training Workshop

Dr Brian Fogarty

Lecturer of Quantitative Social Science & Interim Director of Glasgow Q-Step Programme, University of Glasgow, School of Social and Political Sciences

This project will host a four-session training workshop for quantitative text analysis for staff and graduate students in the School of Social and Political Sciences and School of Education at the University of Glasgow. The sessions will build on one another and be taught by leading academics from the UK, Europe, and the US.

Award value: £13400

MorpheusWeb: Reading Latin and Greek Online

Dr Peter Heslin

Reader, Durham University, Classics and Ancient History

This project will take a number of existing digital tools for learning Latin and Greek and to make them useful for reading any text online, proposing to redesign existing open-source programmes and data and create a new tool that will give guidance on vocabulary, morphology and syntax. This can be used with any text in Latin or Greek anywhere on the web. The result will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in learning the ancient languages.

Award value: £14653

Using machine learning methods to correct for survey misreports in cross-national surveys

Dr Gabriel Katz

Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter, Politics

This project aims to explore the feasibility of using machine learning methods, in order to correct for misreporting and measurement error in representative political surveys.

Award value: £6990

Living Meta Analysis: Pilot for Psychology

Dr Jacek Kopecky

Senior Lecturer, University of Portsmouth, School of Computing

This project proposes to develop and pilot a web-based ‘Living Meta-Analysis’ tool with three core objectives:

(1) To provide a user-friendly generic platform for public, ‘living’ meta-analytic databases.

(2) To add tools to the platform to make doing a meta-analysis as easy and intuitive as playing with Lego blocks.

(3) To promote research integrity and transparency.

Award value: £13904

Beyond the Black Box: Building Algorithmic and Statistical Literacy through Digital Humanities Tools and Resources

Dr Anouk Lang

Lecturer in Digital Humanities, University of Edinburgh, Department of English Literature

This project will develop a suite of ten workshops, each accompanied by an online resource, provide guidance not only on how to use digital humanities tools, but also about the statistical and algorithmic processes at work. It will be overseen by a scholar who is trained in both conventional literary studies and digital humanities.

Award value: £14772

Testing, Targeting, Tracking: Quantitative and Spatial Analytical Skills for Evidence Based Policing

Dr Adegbola Ojo

Senior Lecturer, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool Centre for Advanced Policing

This project uses the framework of evidence-based policing to promote a sustainable foundation for raising graduate and researcher quantitative skills in policing studies. By developing skills and establishing a research network, funding for this project will create a foundation for future training, research and networking activities in later years.

Award value: £14934

Style and/or Substance? Developing Teaching in Statistical Communication for Social Scientists

Dr Alasdair Rutherford

Senior Lecturer in Social Statistics, University of Stirling, School of Applied Social Science

The project will cover three elements of statistical communication: verbal, graphical and numeric. It will bring together expertise in social statistics and graphic design to develop and test both a workshop and a postgraduate module for social scientists.

Award value: £11947

Big Data in Developmental Science: Generating Analytical Training Tools

Professor Gaia Scerif

Professor of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology

Analysing ‘Big Data’ is critical to understanding childhood educational and health outcomes. With the proposed skill training programme, this project will develop a set of training tools and resources geared to tackling questions and problems that are specific to the developmental sciences.

Award value: £14985

Quantitative language research: Exploring the potential of corpus linguistics in education

Dr Vander Viana

Lecturer, University of Stirling, School of Education

This project addresses the deficit in quantitative and language skills in the UK through corpus linguistics (CL), demonstrating innovation by showing the participants how they may develop their own and their supervisees’/students’ quantitative/language skills.

Award value: £14994.36

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