Lancaster University’s commitment to a major festival and celebration of social science has earned the institution the opportunity to co-ordinate and manage this year’s event for 34 organisations pan-UK.

The University has secured funding to recruit and host the Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Festival Manager for the whole national ESRC Festival of Social Science this year.

The Festival Manager will be based within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) Engagement Team and will work closely with the Senior Strategy Manager for Engagement at the ESRC.

The ESRC funding body were impressed with the university’s commitment to social sciences, its approach to the key theme of climate change, together with the university’s work last year of developing a new partnership model for delivery, collaborating with several other institutions.

This is a major coup for Lancaster,” said Laura Kornas, the Faculty Engagement and Partnership Manager for FASS.

“Strategically, the ambition of the ESRC to showcase and highlight the COP26 themes alongside the broader social sciences, aligns with our own. This opportunity, at this critical moment, will enable us to play a vital role in shaping the festival and being instrumental in influencing its success.”

The ESRC Festival of Social Science (FoSS), held online last year, is a UK-wide festival aimed at inspiring public audiences and young people. This year, it will be a combination of online and in-person events across the UK and details of the events run by Lancaster academics will be published when the programme is finalised in September.

The purpose of the Festival Manager role is to ensure join-up between participating organisations to develop a truly fascinating programme of events, inviting us to ‘explore society together’.

The Festival will run throughout November. If you would like to run an event as part of the Lancaster festival events, please see further information and complete an Expression of Interest form.

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is part of UK Research and Innovation, a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. For more information visit www.ukri.org.

The ESRC is the UK’s largest funder of research on the social and economic questions facing us today. It supports the development and training of the UK’s future social scientists and also funds major studies that provide the infrastructure for research. ESRC-funded research informs policymakers and practitioners and helps make businesses, voluntary bodies and other organisations more effective.