ISER specialises in the production and analysis of longitudinal data – evidence which tracks changes in the lives of the same individuals over time. ISER is a department of the University of Essex and is core-funded by the University and the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
ISER incorporates the following centres:
- ESRC Research Centre on Micro-social Change – that is focused on identifying, explaining, modelling and forecasting social change in Britain at the individual and household level.
- ESRC UK Longitudinal Studies Centre – this centre was established to promote the use of longitudinal data and to develop a strategy for the future of large-scale longitudinal surveys. It has responsibility for the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS) and for the ESRC’s interests in the three British Birth Cohort studies (the National Child Development Study, the 1970 British Cohort Study and the new Millennium Cohort)
- European Centre for Analysis in the Social Sciences – a major interdisciplinary research centre that hosts individual researchers and research groups , and provides access and facilities for the analysis of, longitudinal data as well as cross-national data sets from all over Europe.