project

Industry and Doctoral Training in Vote Advice Applications (VOTEADVICE)

1 May 2014 - 30 April 2018

PI/s in Exeter: Professor Susan Banducci

CI/s in Exeter: Professor Gabriel Katz, Professor Dan Stevens

Research partners:

Funding awarded: £ 595,606

Sponsor(s): European Commission

About the research

A four year project funded by the European Commission, led by Susan Banducci.  Co-I: Daniel Stevens (Politics), Gabriel Katz-Wisel (Politics), Samuel Vines (Sport and Health Sciences), and André Krouwel (Kieskompas)

In a review of current survey research, Roger Tourangeau (2004) wrote, “Surveys reflect societal change in a way that few other research tools do”.  Surveys and the analyses of survey responses are the bread and butter of research into the most challenging social problems. However, the random probability sample survey is sensitive to changes in both technology and lifestyle. From increases in personal wealth, higher mobility, language diversity brought about by immigration and technological changes such as the introduction and widespread adoption of mobile phones has led to challenging methodological issues for survey research. The Doctoral and Industry Training network merges technological advances in online tools with state of the art research on political behaviour to develop new methodologies and techniques for collecting and analysing social data to address this challenge in social research. In VOTEADVICE, we bring together an industry at the forefront of online vote advice applications and doctoral training by a leading UK university to deliver doctoral and complementary training to 3 early stage researchers.