Ten years of research into some of the most important issues in modern life are being celebrated this week by the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI).
A symposium at Southampton brought together members of S3RI, leading academic statisticians and professionals from government and industry to hear presentations on recent developments in the Institute’s key research areas; biostatistics, modelling, design of experiments, policy and evaluation and survey methods. Institute members are drawn from many disciplines within the University and work together on many challenging projects, all with statistics at their core. They include improving Census accuracy, pollution forecasting and drug development experiments, probing how migration and population changes affect regional and national demographics and examining organ transplant survival statistics.
The new S3RI research brochure gives an insight into the rich variety of its work. Throughout, the Institute combines research with academic teaching and training professional statisticians in the latest techniques.
S3RI now hosts the Administrative Data Research Centre (ADRC), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It is working with ‘big data’ – huge datasets from government departments and other agencies – to understand more about statistics in key areas such as tax, education and health. “Our vision is to see these data transformed into knowledge and evidence which can be used to inform public and economic policy, helping to tackle some of the major issues facing society in an innovative and efficient way,” explains Peter Smith, Professor of Social Statistics and a former Director of S3RI.
Professor Don Nutbeam comments: “Excellence in research is at the core of the University’s ambition; it underpins our commitment to changing the world for the better and is the foundation for our strategic priorities. S3RI is making a key contribution to delivering these priorities, with a multidisciplinary approach that exemplifies the University’s aim of supporting innovative research across disciplines to find solutions to global problems.”
For more information about this event please contact Sarah Dack on 02380 592522.
To view the S3RI research brochure and to learn more visit: http://southampton.likn.co/s3ri/about/10_years.page