Social Science at Leeds spans a range of subjects including the core disciplines of sociology and social policy, politics and international studies, education, human geography, business and management (including economics) and psychology and interdisciplinary fields such as socio-legal studies, environmental sciences, planning, health studies, asian studies, social history and communication studies.
There are currently more than 300 social scientists at Leeds in the Faculty of Education, Social Sciences and Law (ESSL), the Leeds University Business School (LUBS) and the Faculties of Environment, Medicine and Health, Arts and Performance, Visual Arts and Culture.
The Leeds Social Sciences Institute (LSSI) supports and enhances interdisciplinary collaboration across the social sciences through a wide programme of events and activities.
Social scientists at Leeds have a combined research grant income in excess of £33m in 2009/10. At the last RAE in 2008 we submitted returns to 15 Units of Assessment which involved social science activity. The majority of the submission of 10 of these Units was judged to be world leading or internationally excellent (3* and 4*) with particularly strong performances in the fields of health services and nursing studies, geography, environment and planning, business and management studies, social policy and education.
Leeds research includes a number of prestigious large scale research projects, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) including the Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy, the Centre for Interaction Data Estimation and Research (CIDER), Timescapes, and the White Rose East Asia Centre (WREAC).
Social scientists at Leeds also have an impressive array of partnerships with external organisations which include the Financial Times Masterclass Series in LUBS, partnership programmes with the Emergency Planning College, a £16M research partnership between the University and Yorkshire Water and the Leeds York Bradford Research Alliance (LYBRA) with the National Health Service (NHS).
Leeds also have a range of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTPs) with external organisations, particularly in relation to marketing, management, health psychology and IT, with partners including, Credit Unions, banks, pharmaceutical companies and medical instrument manufacturers, NHS Trusts, and food manufacturers.
LSSI plays an important role in liaising with research centres and projects to share best practice and build further research opportunities. LSSI hosts a wide range of events, training and placement opportunities for researchers, including a Lunchtime conversation series on Grand Challenges. In collaboration with the ESSL Graduate School the LSSI provides PGR students with a wide range of training opportunities and events such as the recent ‘Uses of Evidence in Policy Making’ conference. The Institute is developing a partnership catalogue to build further research partnerships with local organisations to enable placement and internship opportunities, particularly for postgraduate researchers.
