The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has created a National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) to provide a focal point for research, training and capacity building activities, aimed at promoting a step change in the quality and range of methodological skills and techniques used by the UK social science community.

The EPPI-Centre's Methods for Research Synthesis programme is one of five nodes of the NCRM. It develops the methodology of systematic research synthesis and capacity building in synthesis and evidence use.

Developing good research methodology is central to the EPPI-Centre’s aim of providing accessible and reliable systematic reviews which are useful to practitioners, policy makers and other users. Working with the NCRM allows the EPPI-Centre to invest time and expertise in developing methodology that helps researchers to assess and synthesize existing evidence in the most effective and appropriate way.

The work for NCRM includes strategies to:

•      broaden methodological approaches to systematic reviews in order that synthesis of research can accommodate diverse types of data, including statistical, narrative and conceptual data. We have developed on-line software to facilitate mixed methods synthesis.

•      develop a matrix of all types of systematic review questions and methods and the current methodological developments and challenges in research synthesis.        

•      develop review tools for assessing the quality of qualitative and other research which investigates people’s perspectives and experience.

•     use e-social science to support reviews through techniques such as text mining.

•    develop databases of primary studies and evidence reviews to enable transparency, efficiency and sustainability of systematic reviews.

•     develop methods for and understand the impact of different approaches to user involvement in systematic reviews.

•   use and share these methodological and user approaches.

•   develop national and international collaborations and partnerships.

All these methodological developments are applied to substantive topic areas of social science in our programmes of systematic reviews.

A major part of our work with the ESRC's NCRM focuses on capacity building through training and we provide a range  of courses and an MSc in Evidence for Public Policy and Practice. 

You can find more information on our work with ESRC's National Centre for Research Methods. If you would like to receive more information on events and activities of the joint ESRC NCRM and Research Methods Programme, please register at http://www.ccsr.ac.uk/methods/.