SASNet

SASNet Objectives

The ultimate objectives of the network are building capacity amongst social science researchers engaged in innovative, risky, blue skies research to harness the power of real-time data and other forms of big data for use in urban and business contexts, while providing business and public sector analysts as well as decision-makers with the understanding and analytic skills to make effective use of these various data sources in their professional activities.

We intend to achieve this by running a series of events and activities throughout the UK as well as hosting a programme of visiting fellowships.

• Training and capacity building events
• SASNet Fellowship Programme

What are social analytics?

By social analytics we refer to methods drawn from the data sciences as well as social sciences for analysing, visualising, simulating, modelling, and interpreting complex and increasingly novel real-time as well as static data which can be used for knowledge discovery and understanding of complex social systems. Our specific interest lies in the use of these methods to focus on businesses management process and related analytics (BLGDRC) and data-intensive urban research or urban informatics (UBDC).

SASNet Training and Capacity Building Events

The SASNet's training and capacity building events will be delivered through:

Seminar Series

UBDC and BLGDRC will be jointly organising a set of user-focused seminars, webinars, lectures and masterclasses offered by a mixture of academic and non-academic speakers, the main objectives of which being to improve organisations' understanding of techniques for the analysis of a variety of historical and real-time data, to share the best practice around analytics and to develop collaborative links between major users and university researchers. The seminars will be delivered throughout the UK and hosted by selected institutions within our data research network to afford this widest possible reach.

Training Programme

Development of the training programme is ongoing with the majority of classes to take place at the University of Glasgow and the University of Essex. Training will be in the form of workshops and computer lab sessions arranged into three different tracks, tailored to the requirement of different sectors, but allowing significant crossover. The tracks will fully utilise the business analytics and urban analytics research agenda and expertise of BLGDRC and UBDC. The training tracks are open to a wide variety of different research areas and data analytics:

• Fundamentals of Data-Driven Solutions Including Real-time Analytics (led by UBDC)
• Real-time analytics and business process management (led by BLGDRC)
• Urban Informatics and urban policy and planning processes (led by UBDC)

Get Involved

In order to tailor the courses to the current training and skills building demand, we would welcome suggestions of particular topic areas, methods and software tools to cover that would be of most benefit to your sector. Please do so by contacting the general SASNet helpdesk:

We also have a budget to support a limited number of people to provide training and seminars in specialist areas of data analytics, please get in touch via the e-mail address above if you would be interested in taking part.

SASNet Fellowship Programme - Apply today!

The SASNet Fellowship Programme is a scheme that enables academic and non-academic (business and public policy) visitors to join the research community at either BLGRC in Essex or at UBDC in Glasgow, for a period of between 1 week to 2 months, for research and technology exchanges, and to participate in our capacity-building and analytics programmes.

WHO CAN APPLY?

SASNet Fellowships are open to both UK and international residents, including:

• Academics in any discipline
• Professionals from businesses and other third sector and/or private organisations
• Professionals from local authorities, government departments and public agencies

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING A SASNET FELLOW?

• (1)Access to a wide spectrum of UK data for your research -- this includes a range of administrative, big, and complex data on business, government and urban areas in the UK.
• (2) Expert guidance and support for your research from the interdisciplinary staff at the UBDC and BLGRC, including funding for travel to/from and accommodation in Glasgow or Essex if required.
• (3) Opportunities to promote your latest research, build relationships, and share your expertise in social analytics to further develop the capacity and skills of academics and professionals in the UK.

WHAT IS EXPECTED OF FELLOWS?

Prospective SASNet Fellows should describe their analytics interests and propose a short project, which will form the basis of their Fellowship. Successful applicants will either:

• (1) contribute by participating in the network’s training and seminar series towards capacity-building on technical and analytic issues, or
• (2) bring a novel source of data or specialist technical methods that can demonstrate the value of analytics within one or both of the specific areas of the two Centres.

WHAT FUNDING IS PROVIDED?

Employing organisations are expected to continue to pay the salaries of the fellows in question and to meet travel costs where appropriate. The SASNet Fellowship Programme will cover accommodation, subsistence and travel costs for overseas and UK fellows for the duration of the fellowship (1 week to 2 months), which cannot be met from other sources.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• Academic Fellows will be chosen on the basis that they bring additional expertise that will contribute (a) to the body of knowledge for social analytics of big data in the Centres, and (b) to the training and capacity-building activities of the Centre(s).
• Professional Fellows will be selected on the basis of their ability to contribute innovative data sources to the Centre’s data services as well as training/capacity building in the specialist data analytics approaches that they utilise for their policy analysis or business management work.

HOW TO APPLY

To apply for a SASNet Fellowship, please email the following documents as attachments to .

• (1) SASNet Fellowship Programme Application Form (Docx 401KB), which includes a statement of interest and summary of proposed project;
• (2) and a 2-page CV.

Questions?

If you have any questions, please email in the first instance.