Opportunity status:
Open
Funders:
Funding type:
Grant
Total fund:
£2,310,000
Maximum award:
£2,310,000
Publication date:
12 March 2026
Opening date:
12 March 2026 9:00am UK time
Closing date:
21 May 2026 4:00pm UK time
Last updated: 13 March 2026 -
Apply for funding to be the UK National Coordinator for the European Social Survey and deliver the data collection for Round 13 and 14.
You must be based at a UK research organisation eligible for Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funding.
The full economic cost (FEC) of your project can be up to £2,310,000. ESRC will fund 80% of the FEC (exceptions including subcontracted social surveys are funded at 100% FEC).
Funding is available for a maximum of 48 months, from August 2026.
This opportunity is open to organisations with standard eligibility, and organisations who are based overseas.
International researchers
As ESRC is a lead funder for this opportunity, international researchers can apply as ‘project co-lead (international) (PcL (I))’. You should include all other international collaborators (or UK partners not based at approved organisations) as project partners.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
for all funding applicants. We encourage applications from a diverse range of researchers.
We support people to work in a way that suits their personal circumstances. This includes:
* career breaks
* support for people with caring responsibilities
* flexible working
* alternative working patterns
for UKRI applicants and grant holders during the application and assessment process.
Aim
The aims of this opportunity are:
* to identify a National Coordinator for Round 13 and 14 of the European Social Survey (ESS) in the UK
* to deliver data collection for Round 13 and 14 of the ESS in the UK
ESRC’s objectives for the successful applicant will be to:
* produce high quality data that meets the requirements of the ESS European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) specification, building on the existing cross-national and time series data
* produce data that meets the needs of the UK and international research, and wider stakeholder communities, and ensure those communities have timely access to the data
* collaborate across the ESS, meeting the requirements of the ESS ERIC Specification, to deliver UK interests and enable the research wider stakeholder communities to fully utilise ESS data
* promote the use of the data by the research and wider stakeholder communities in the UK, including to maximise the public benefit of the data through informing policy, practice and the public
By delivering the objectives ESS will support the delivery of. In particular within the following focus areas: building and sustaining a foundation and impact and public benefit.
Applications should clearly outline how their project objectives and work packages contribute to the above ESRC funding objectives for ESS. Applications will be assessed and prioritised based on how well they deliver the funding objectives, opportunity specification and .
Scope
Each ESS ERIC member or observer must appoint a National Co-ordinator (NC) and a survey agency to undertake the ESS in their country. The NC and survey agency may be located in a single institution.
The successful applicant(s) will be appointed UK National Co-ordinator for two rounds (48 months) and be responsible for delivering two rounds of data collection (Round 13 and 14). Please read the ‘Survey implementation and data collection’ section carefully for requirements regarding subcontracted data collection.
Applications should be based on the details outlined in this opportunity and the, this will include NC activities and fieldwork for Round 13 and anticipated NC activities and fieldwork for Round 14. Upon publication of the Round 14 survey specification (anticipated late 2027), should major changes in the requirements of the National Co-ordinator or survey data collection occur, ESRC will work with the NC and ESS ERIC to ensure the necessary support to meet the ESS requirements are provided.
As required, before the start of Round 14, ESRC will conduct a proportionate review of the delivery of the ESS in the UK, to ensure the objectives agreed through this opportunity are being delivered. ESRC retains the right to make changes in line with the terms and conditions of the award if required. It is anticipated that significant changes would only be made in the following circumstances:
* the NC is not delivering the agreed objectives
* significant changes in the requirements for the NC and survey data collection are made by ESS ERIC in Round 14
* assumptions for calculating fieldwork budgets for Round 14 are substantively incorrect
* ESRC accepts an adjustment suggested by the NC or ESS ERIC
This funding will support National Co-ordination for Rounds 13 and 14, including:
* survey implementation
* communication
* dissemination
This funding will also support survey data collection, including the planned activities for Round 13 and anticipated activities for Round 14.
A minimum of £200,000 of the funding is to be used for National Coordination. Applicants must describe how they will balance funding for fieldwork and National Coordination costs, as well as justify why this is appropriate. The primary objective of this work is to deliver the ESS in the UK as per the ESS Specification. ESRC’s next priority objective is to further support dissemination, engagement, promoting use and impact. See ‘Dissemination: promoting use and impact’ for further details.
As an investment from the ESRC infrastructure team, academic research using the data is not within scope of this funding opportunity, for further details on this please see the ‘What we will fund’ and ‘What we will not fund’ section.
Activities funded from ESRC’s contribution must be used for the delivery or improvement of the study as a data infrastructure for use by the wider research community. However, applicants are welcome to conduct aligned activities using different funding sources, these alternatively funded aligned activities can be discussed in the application where they provide additional value to ESS in the UK.
Applicants should outline why their decided approach is the best way of delivering the ESS in the UK.
For the following two sections (National Co-ordination and Survey implementation and data collection) information is drawn heavily from the ESS Round 13 Specification, these are highlighted to support understanding of key requirements. However, please refer to the full when writing your application for full details.
For planned activities for Round 14, applicants should utilise the information provided in the ESS Round 13 survey specification. Upon publication of ESS Round 14 survey specification, should major changes in the requirements of the National Co-ordinator or survey data collection occur ESRC will work with the NC and ESS ERIC to ensure the necessary support to meet the ESS requirements are provided.
National Co-ordination
It is anticipated that the NC will need to spend approximately 8 months full-time equivalent on their activities in each round (24 months), this is dependent on involvement in previous rounds and approaches taken. The NC can be an individual or a team.
The NC will:
* be a person of standing within the social science community of their country
* be familiar at first hand with survey methodology and procedures, in particular self-completion approaches
* be knowledgeable about past national or sub-national studies of a similar nature
* be fluent in spoken and written English
* be willing to oversee the work of the survey organisation or other third parties responsible for parts of the survey life cycle
* have experience of cross-national research
* be accepting of the ESS specification
* act as a data processor in full compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation
The key roles of the NC are to coordinate activities of the ESS ERIC at a national level and ensure national compliance with the ESS specification for that round. Some of these tasks may be performed by external survey agencies or other suppliers. The NCs are expected to contribute to strategic discussions about the ESS methodology and detailed discussions on ESS questionnaire design. Broadly the NC is responsible for survey implementation, communication and dissemination. The NC work is broadly spread across 4 stages:
* preparation for data collection and country questionnaires
* start of data collection and progress monitoring
* data preparation and processing
* dissemination of results
The tasks the NC must perform or arrange others to perform under their supervision are:
* communicating with the Core Scientific Team and attending two NC Forum meetings per year (for Round 13, we expect one in-person meeting and one virtual meeting per year)
* selecting and liaising with the Survey Agency or other third-party suppliers (where applicable)
* signing a Data Processor Agreement with the ESS ERIC and sub processor agreements with any appointed by the NC (for example, survey agency, mailing company)
* ensuring data protection, anonymity and confidentiality and full compliance with applicable data protection laws
* participating in questionnaire development and pre-testing, including carrying out a national pre-test
* discussing available sampling frames and sampling procedures with the Sampling and Weighting Expert Panel and ensuring these are signed off before fieldwork begins
* providing a sampling frame
* where applicable, briefing and training fieldworkers
* preparing and issuing survey materials (for example, invitation and reminder letters)
* identifying optimal respondent incentives and arranging their purchase and dispatch
* preparing for and planning data collection, including recording the return of paper questionnaires
* delivering and overseeing data collection, including arranging mailing of invitation and reminder letters and deployment of fieldworkers as outlined in the specification
* delivering the target (effective) sample size, while maximising response rates and ensuring a nationally representative sample
* arranging return, recording, and data entry or scanning of completed paper questionnaires
* preparing, depositing and finalising data and other deliverables to the ESS Data Archive and communicating with the ESS Data Archive
* adhering to national and institutional ethical procedures
* disseminating ESS findings and methodological outcomes
* arranging for a survey agency representative to attend a Field Directors’ Meeting, where applicable
Detailed breakdown of these tasks can be found in full in the ESS Round 13 survey specification .
Please refer to the full when writing your application. All activities must be completed in line with the .
ESRC also require the ESS NC to produce budget estimates for proceeding rounds as ESS specifications are released at the ESRC’s request.
The expected deliverables for both the National Coordination and the survey data collection are the following data files:
* data from main questionnaire (combined web and paper), including country-specific questions and respondent experience questions
* self-completion contact data
* sample design data file
* raw data from main questionnaire (separate files for web and paper, including verbatim answers from open questions from both web and paper questionnaires (including ancestry))
And the following documents:
* national technical summary (NTS) with appendices (education, income, political parties, marital and relationship status)
* population statistics according to a central specification
* main paper self-completion questionnaire(s) (all language versions)
* contact form(s) or code used for collection programme
* fieldworker instructions, briefing and training material
* invitation letters and reminders, screen shot of any email or text reminders, screen shot of landing pages, photo of example of envelopes used, data protection information sheet, brochures and other written information provided to the respondents
All activities should be conducted to the timeframe outlined in the ESS Specification for each round. For Round 13 the key dates are:
* July 2026: Round 13 version of the myESS project portal available for R13 preparations and discussions
* July 2026 to July 2027: sample design plans discussed between NCs and the Sampling and Weighting Expert Panel, signed off by the Sampling and Weighting Expert Panel
* 16 September 2026: deadline for NC to communicate any new or repeated country-specific items in ESS13 questionnaire
* 15 October 2026: penultimate draft main questionnaire sent to NCs for comments
* 29 October 2026: deadline for NC feedback on draft main questionnaire
* 11 November 2026: deadline for the General Assembly representative and NC to confirm funding for R13 to ESS HQ
* 16 November 2026: ESS Round 13 source questionnaire released to NCs, self-completion materials released
* November 2026 to July 2027: questionnaire consultations with the core scientific team on ESS items requiring adaptation beyond standard translation
* December 2026 to October 2027: methodological questionnaire completed by NCs and signed off by Country Contact and ESS HQ
* January 2027: ESS13 data protocol and dictionaries released to NCs
* January to August 2026: review, adjudication, verification, quality checks, staging, and national pre-tests
* from April 2027: NCs to set up and test country-specific implementations of Centerdata tools
* from May 2027: pre-test for self-completion questionnaires and tools
* August 2027: national technical summary made available
* from August 2027: fieldworker briefings for self-completion approach, where relevant
* 1 September 2027: ESS Round 13 data collection starts
* September 2027 to May 2028: monitor data collection
* 20 January 2028: final deadline for R13 data collection start
* 15 May 2028: final deadline for completion of ESS Round 13 data collection
* 28 February 2028: data delivery to ESS data archive (deadline for 1st release countries)
* 30 June 2028: Final data delivery to ESS data archive (deadline for 2nd release countries)
* June to September 2028: first data release expected
* October 2028 to February 2029: second data release expected
Survey implementation and data collection
The primary role of the NC is implementation of required ESS procedures to enable high-quality data collection as outlined in the ESS Specification. Certain tasks will be carried out by the NC, independent of any survey agency, whilst others can be carried out in cooperation with the survey agency.
The ESS survey is made up of a core survey (asked each round) and two rotating modules.
The rotating modules for Round 13 are interdisciplinary perspectives on social (dis)connectedness in Europe and welfare attitudes in Europe: social security in insecure times. Round 14 modules are to be determined following an in 2026. NCs can request to include up to five country-specific items in each round subject to sign off by the ESS.
Round 13 and 14 of the ESS will collect data via self-completion survey (web and paper) from a random probability sample, representative of all persons aged 15 and over resident within private dwellings, regardless of their nationality, citizenship or language. An effective sample size of at least of 1500 is required.
ESRC offers applicants two options for conducting the survey data collection for Round 13 and 14. The options are as follows:
* the NC can apply and subsequently appoint a survey agency to be appointed by competitive tender (at each round), which would be administered by the NC, with oversight from ESRC. In this case fieldwork would be funded at 100% FEC
* if the NC is based within an organisation with sufficient inhouse survey capacity they can bid to undertake the co-ordination and survey agency roles for both rounds, where the survey agency aspect would be funded as an 80% contribution from ESRC
For applicants opting for the first option above, in line with (RGC 9.1) and the, all subcontracted social surveys must be subject to normal competitive purchasing principles. ESRC requires that surveys over £10,000 (£8,333 exclusive of VAT) are subject to external competition to ensure best value for money through competitive purchasing processes. Where surveys are expected to exceed £25,000 (£20,830 exclusive of VAT) the research organisation’s full tendering procedures must be followed.
Applicants must ensure sufficient time is built into the project timeline to enable a competitive tender process.
Applicants should seek out quotations for a minimum of three potential fieldwork providers and provide these estimates in the ‘Resources and cost justification’ section. Otherwise, applicants must explain and evidence why this is not possible, and demonstrate that they have considered alternative approaches to procuring all, or some, aspects of the fieldwork.
ESRC reserves the right to reject applications whose subcontracted social surveys are not subject to external competition, or do not provide the necessary evidence prior to expert review.
Where survey data collection is subcontracted, the NC will be appointed as an agent of the ESS ERIC. The organisation must commit to working with ESS ERIC to set up the agent agreement as part of the organisation’s support for the project. Under this arrangement, the supply of fieldwork services will be VAT zero rated and the ESS ERIC will issue a certificate to the fieldwork agency.
Therefore, net (not including VAT) subcontracted data collection costs should be submitted. You may contact to access a template of the agent agreement before submitting your application. We strongly recommend engaging with relevant parts of your organisation early to make sure the agent agreement can be set up. As part of your application, you should also outline your plan in case the agent agreement cannot be implemented and how you would deliver the core requirements of this funding opportunity (see application questions).