Abstract

The UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has commissioned a three year £3.3M initiative (July 2023-June 2026) designed to deliver a step-change in survey methodology and practice in the UK. The programme aims to ensure that it will remain possible in the UK to carry out high-quality social surveys that meet the evolving needs of the public and academic sectors.
The initiative, known as Survey Futures, involves a broad and ambitious research programme structured across nine Research Strands, alongside a robust training and capacity-building stream. It also includes workshops, conferences, and other engagement activities and events to foster collaboration across the UK survey research community.
The need for Survey Futures stems from both the current challenges facing the survey community and new opportunities – many of which were shaped or accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the pandemic severely disrupted fieldwork operations and decimated interviewing field forces, it also catalysed innovation, prompting a rapid shift towards new approaches to survey data collection.
In this presentation, I will outline the objectives and structure of Survey Futures, highlight key components of the methodological research programme, and share early findings and outputs, including those still in development. The presentation will offer insights into how the initiative is helping to shape the future of survey research in the UK and beyond.