This provides an excellent opportunity to address a range of important methodological issues with geodemographic classifications, and to build better visualisation methods for dissemination that will maximise engagement and create more opportunities for public feedback. As such, the key research deliverables of this award will be: to evaluate alternate clustering methodologies that create more stable assignments of areas into clusters; to design new geographically sensitive methods of measurement that inform the underlying indicator variables used to create the classification; to develop and evaluate new modes of dissemination which better utilise web based technology and new advances in GIS.

The successful candidate is likely to have a background in GIS or computer science, and will have as a minimum an upper second or first class degree. The applicant will be a home (UK) or EU student. Applicants should email a curriculum vitae and supporting statement to Professor Paul Longley at the Department of Geography, University College London: plongley@geog.ucl.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 27 August 2010, with interviews planned for the following week.

The meetings will be looking at the revisions proposed by ONS to the Mid Year Estimate series from Mid 2002 to Mid 2008. The latest changes revise methodology for the distribution of International migrants between local areas and include new data on Students to enhance moves within the UK. These meetings will give Local Authorities the chance to compare findings, assess the changes and receive some feedback from the ONS IMPS team.

The programme for both events are available at the bottom of this post. If you would like to contribute to the events by giving a short (10 minute) presentation as part of Session 2, and get instant feedback from the ONS IMPS team, please let the BSPS Secretariat know when you register for the event.

To register please email pic@lse.ac.uk and indicate which venue you will be attending and whether you would like to do a short presentation.

Meeting Flyer here.

Leeds Schedule here.

LGA Schedule here.

Workshop: Exploring population and health trends – the ONS Longitudinal Study
Time: 14.00-16.30
Date: Friday, 22 January 2010
Venue: Room 46AD03, The University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH

The Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (LS) offers a 1% sample of the population of England and Wales. It draws its data from each Census (1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 so far), linking the information (on both individual and household) together to form a developing history for each sample member. Data are also drawn from the Registrar General’s birth and death records, among other sources. It is a very important data source for many fundamental population studies. Recent topics of LS research have included inequalities in life expectancy, health and socio-economic status; a profile of the ‘oldest old’; migration trends; the outcomes of cohabitation; the effects of childlessness and of single parenthood in women; and the changing ethnic distribution of the population.

Despite the importance of the LS it remains little-known outside government departments, and yet it is not difficult to use. The aim of this workshop is to describe the LS, some possible research uses of it and how to access it; and to offer hands-on experience of analysing the LS by means of specimen datasets. The Longitudinal Studies of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be briefly described, as will the other Census data resources available for academic use in England and Wales.

Hands-on exercises will use SPSS; guidance will be provided for those unfamiliar with it.

The workshop is free to attend, booking and further information is available here.

Time: 14.00-16.30
Date: Friday, 22 January 2010
Venue: Room 46AD03, The University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH

The Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study (LS) offers a 1% sample of the population of England and Wales. It draws its data from each Census (1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001 so far), linking the information (on both individual and household) together to form a developing history for each sample member. Data are also drawn from the Registrar General’s birth and death records, among other sources. It is a very important data source for many fundamental population studies. Recent topics of LS research have included inequalities in life expectancy, health and socio-economic status; a profile of the ‘oldest old’; migration trends; the outcomes of cohabitation; the effects of childlessness and of single parenthood in women; and the changing ethnic distribution of the population.

Despite the importance of the LS it remains little-known outside government departments, and yet it is not difficult to use. The aim of this workshop is to describe the LS, some possible research uses of it and how to access it; and to offer hands-on experience of analysing the LS by means of specimen datasets. The Longitudinal Studies of Scotland and Northern Ireland will be briefly described, as will the other Census data resources available for academic use in England and Wales. Hands-on exercises will use SPSS; guidance will be provided for those unfamiliar with it.

This workshop is free to attend.

Booking and further information:
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=2348

The fellowship itself concerns the review of the ONS Virtual Microdata Laboratory (VML).

Any enquiries please email: lesley.lilley@esrc.ac.uk or felix.ritchie@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Further ONS placement details in this Word document.

Closing date for applicants is 8th of July.

Southend, 26 June

Time: 10.30-16.00 (10.00 registration and refreshments)
Date: Friday, 26 June 2009
Place: University of Essex, Southend Campus, Elmer Approach, Southend-on-
Sea, SS1 1LW
Booking and information:
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=2175

This workshop will include an introduction to the data services offered by
Census.ac.uk and is aimed at those studying or working in the UK higher and
further education sector, but is not limited to those already registered to use
the census.

At this workshop users will be introduced to the activities of the Centre for
Interaction Data Estimation and Research (CIDER) and the Web-based
Interface to Census Interaction Data (WICID) data extraction system.

Rachel Stuchbury, Julian Buxton and Christopher Marshall from the Centre for
Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CelSIUS) will introduce the
Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, with a focus on health and
ethnicity, discussing data sources and structure, offering suggestions for
research topics and designs, showing how to access the data and giving
participants an opportunity to explore the data for themselves using two
teaching datasets, on ethnicity and limiting long term illness respectively.

Shane Bartley, Strategy and Performance Advisor at Southend Borough
Council, will give a short talk about their preparations for the 2011 census.

The workshop is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. However
travel and accommodation costs will need to be met by the participants.

Booking and information:
http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=2175

 LG03, New Academic Building, London School of Economics

14th  May 2009

Programme

10.30 Registration and Coffee

11.00 Introduction by the Chair

11.10 Marital history and mortality using ONS Longitudinal Study data, Emily Grundy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

 3.50 Final questions and comments

4.00 End of meeting

3.10 Associations between self reported health and mortality in the UK: analysis of the Longitudinal Studies of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Harriet Young, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

2.30 Reinvigorating your data with some contextual colour: examples from the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study. Dermot O’Reilly, Queens University Belfast

12.50 Lunch (not provided) Optional demonstration of the Centre for Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CeLSIUS) web resources.

1.50 Using the Scottish Longitudinal Study to consider the effects of widowhood on mortality,   Paul Boyle, University of St. Andrews

 12.20 Paid employment, permanent sickness and mortality risk: England and Wales 1971-2001, David Blane, Imperial College London

11.50 Examining the influence of health selection on male mortality by socio-economic position, England and Wales, 2001-04,  Chris White, Office for National Statistics

This day meeting is open to all, and is free of charge. However, - please email pic@lse.ac.uk or phone 020 7955 7666 to pre-register   pre-registration is essential

Date: 13 May 2009
Location: Royal Statistical Society, London

This one-day conference showcases the work of nine research projects funded during 2008-09 by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). These have focused on developments in 2011 census data products, innovations in census data linkage through time and emerging web-based technologies for census data dissemination. The day is intended to inform debate concerning future research priorities surrounding the delivery of data from the 2011 UK censuses and the requirements of contemporary census research users.

09.30 Registration
Chair of meeting – Prof Mike Batty, University College London

10.00 Welcome and overview – Prof David Martin, University of  Southampton

2011 data developments

10.10 Towards 2011 output geographies: adapting and evaluating automated zone design methods for maintaining the 2001 output geographies – Samantha Cockings, University of Southampton

10.35 Microdata, research facilities and work practice in the UK Social Science Community Census data linkage – Dr Jo Wathan, University of Manchester

11.00 Developing Analyses of the England & Wales, Scottish and Northern Ireland Census Longitudinal Studies: health and mortality as a case study – Harriet Young, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
11.25 Coffee

Data linkage

11.45 Testing the feasibility of extending the Scottish Longitudinal Study back through time – Prof Paul Boyle, University of St Andrews

12.10 Web-based Spatio-temporal Interpolator for Census Area Statistics – Prof Nigel Walford and Dr Shaozhong Shi, Kingston University

12.35 Questions to presenters
12.50 Lunch

Emerging technologies for data dissemination

13.45 A Census data feed research network – Dr Oliver Duke-Williams, University of Leeds

14.10 Creating a Census (Meta)Data Feed – Justin Hayes, University of Manchester

14.35 DiaD – Data Integration and Dissemination – James Reid, University of Edinburgh

15.00 Census Geographic Information Visualisation (Censusgiv) – Dr Pablo Mateos, University College London

15.25 Discussion led by panel

16.00 Close

The meeting will take place at the Royal Statistical Society headquarters, 12 Errol Street, London, EC1Y 8LX

The following registration charges apply:
£20 RSS Retired or Student Fellows
£22 RSS CStat/GradStat
£25 RSS Fellows
£30 RSS Linked Associates
£40 None of the above
email conference@rss.org.uk   for a booking form

Map and directions

Time: 10.00-15.45
Date: Thursday, 16 April 2009
Place: Level 3A/3B, Main Building, City University, Northampton Square,
London, EC1V 0HB
Booking: http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/news/eventdetail.asp?id=2174

Rachel Stuchbury, Julian Buxton and Christopher Marshall from the Centre for
Longitudinal Study Information and User Support (CelSIUS) will introduce the
Office for National Statistics Longitudinal Study, with a focus on health and
ethnicity, discussing data sources and structure, offering suggestions for
research topics and designs, showing how to access the data and giving
participants an opportunity to explore the data for themselves using two
teaching datasets, on ethnicity and limiting long term illness respectively.

Jo Wathan and Selvino deKort from the Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and
Survey Research, Manchester University will talk about the Samples of
Anonymised Records (SARs) from the 2001 Census. These are a family of
datasets for one census point only. In this presentation and hands-on session
they will introduce the data and show how they can be used to look at health
for different ethnic groups. The hands-on session will enable participants to
use the data themselves using online tools and SPSS. Further information
about the data can be obtained at http://sars.census.ac.uk.

There are now three census-based record linkage studies covering all
constituent parts of the UK, the Office for National Statistics Longitudinal
Study (ONS LS) covering England and Wales (established in the mid 1970s);
the Scottish Longitudinal Study (SLS) and the Northern Ireland Longitudinal
Study (NILs), both of which were launched in 2007. Harriet Young from the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine will talk about a project to
develop methods and procedures for carrying out parallel and combined
analyses of these three studies. An exemplar research project is used to
analyse the association between self-reported health and long-term illness in
the 2001 census and subsequent mortality in all three studies. Here, she will
present the results of this research to date.

This workshop will include an introduction to the data services offered by
Census.ac.uk and is aimed at those studying or working in the UK higher and
further education sector, but is not limited to those already registered to use
the census.

The workshop is free to attend and includes lunch and refreshments. However
travel and accommodation costs will need to be met by the participants.