CLOSER is delighted to announce we have received a one-year funding extension through to the end of March 2022 from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The funding will enable CLOSER to continue to bring together world-leading longitudinal studies to maximise their use, value and impact.
During the extension, CLOSER will continue important work across its key areas of data discoverability, training and capability building, data harmonisation, data linkage, and impact and engagement.
CLOSER will build on its recent expansion of partner studies to further promote cross-study research and enable insights into key social and biomedical challenges.
Rebecca Hardy, Director of CLOSER, said: “I am delighted that the ESRC has funded CLOSER for an additional year, allowing us to continue our important work, building on our past achievements to date. We look forward to working with our partners, including 19 world-leading longitudinal studies, funders and the wider longitudinal studies community, to provide valuable insights into social and biomedical challenges, including those resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. ”
Professor Sue Rogers, Interim Director of the UCL Institute of Education said: “CLOSER is extremely valuable as it further enhances the value of the UKs world-leading longitudinal studies, improving their discoverability, maximising their policy impact, and building capacity in users. The extension of funding is a reflection on the important work of CLOSER to date”.
Jeremy Neathey, ESRC Director of Strategy, said: “I am pleased to announce the extension of ESRC’s funding for CLOSER to March 2022. This will allow CLOSER to continue its vital work bringing together the longitudinal community to maximise the use, value and impact of the UK’s longitudinal studies. CLOSER is an important investment for ESRC, its core work in data discoverability and metadata enhancement, harmonisation, linkage, impact, and training and capacity building has delivered substantial achievements to date across the social and biomedical sciences.”
CLOSER was funded by the ESRC and the Medical Research Council (MRC) from 2012-17, and by the ESRC from 2017-22.