HOST Policy Research: Consortium Research and Workshop Programme
To help support our client base in this time of constrained budgets and policy change, HOST is developing the Consortium Research and Workshop Programme. As the name suggests, this has two major strands – consortium research and a separate workshop programme. This page focuses on the Consortium Research, a separate page focuses on the Workshop Programme.
Strand One: Consortium Research Opportunities
The HOST Policy Research Consortia Research and Workshop Programme was launched during the Winter/Spring 2011. This is a cost-effective way of participating in research and working with leading-edge professional researchers.
The original, highly successful, HOST Consortia Research Programme ran in the 1990s and into 2000 and allowed organisations with similar research needs, but restricted budgets, to commission research and evaluation work as a group but also meet their individual organisational objectives. The focus of research needs has changed in the past few years but we believe the need for organisations to commission work cost effectively has not, and that now is an ideal time to re-launch the HOST Consortia Research and Workshop Programme which, as well as research projects, will include a series of workshops to develop the skills you need to do research in-house. Details of how the Consortia are run, what you can get out of them and our current list of projects available to participate in are set out below.
The HOST Consortia Research process works like this:
- A list of potential research projects with outline methodologies is developed and circulated to organisations who might be interested in participating.
- Those organisations are asked to indicate their interest in specific research topics.
- The organisations are then told how much individual contributions would be, based on the numbers of organisations interested – the aim is to keep contributions to a minimum, certainly below £5,000 (excluding VAT) per organisation.
- For each individual project that receives sufficient funding, a Steering Group of representatives from all contributing organisations is formed, and at the first meeting the detailed focus and methodology for the project is agreed.
- The research is undertaken by the professional staff at HOST to the agreed methodology and timescale and overseen by the Steering Group
- HOST prepares a summary overview report and individual reports for each participating organisation/sector.
What will you get out of participating in the Programme?
Post project evaluation feedback from previous Consortia members suggests the following benefits from participation:
- The ability to conduct large scale research on a low budget.
- Networking with other members of the Consortia Steering Group.
- Working with experienced researchers at HOST.
- Learning how research works – several previous Consortia members brought along junior research staff to Steering Groups as part of their learning and development.
- Although the research is across all participating organisations, each individual organisation receives their own tailored report with their own relevant findings.
The following is a list of proposed projects that can be supported by HOST, click on each of them for more information:
Project 1/11: Improving Leadership and Management Capability
Project 2/11: The Sector Workforce Time Bomb
Project 3/11: The Changing Market for Apprenticeships
Project 4/11: Collaborative working across SSCs
Project 5/11: Informing Young People’s Choices
We are also interested in hearing from organisations about any research needs or potential consortia projects that they have identified to add to our future list of HOST Consortia Research Programme projects, as we expand the number of potential topics that can be supported.
If you would like further information, or have queries or comments in relation to the proposed list of research projects, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@hostpolicyresearch.com
“HOST’s expertise in educational policy helped ensure that a valid, well accepted and useful evaluation was produced.”