We simply have two comments to make relating to the ESRC's international policies and activities.

  1.  We fully support the ESRC's aim to secure more joint funding with other countries. In economics, this is particularly important with respect to the US. Funding for large scale teams of researchers on the key social science issues of the day is very important. This obviously produces new knowledge on those issues themselves, but also helps to cross-fertilise academic techniques, and foster cooperation. More and more of modern social science research takes place in teams now rather than lone scholarship, and it is important that these teams include researchers from different intellectual environments. In moving away from a "cottage industry" approach to social science research, the ESRC must enable team-building across national frontiers. In addition to large team-building funding, we would advocate more funding for early career researchers to spend time in academic institutions in other countries. Again, for economics, this particularly means the US.

  2.  It is important to continue to work towards streamlining the admission process for international funding.

April 2007