The UK Data Service Dissertation Award 2026 is open for entries and we are delighted to announce the judges.
Each year, our judging panel includes experts from the UK Data Service and senior academic staff. This year Dr. Alex Bryson, (Professor of Quantitative Social Science at UCL’s Social Research Institute) and Dr Roxanne Connelly (Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Quantitative Methods, University of Edinburgh) will be joining Dr Jen Buckley (UK Data Service Training and User Support team) on the panel.
Read on to learn more about them:
Dr. Roxanne Connelly
Roxanne is a sociologist based at the University of Edinburgh. Her research falls in the interconnected fields of Social Stratification and the Sociology of Education. She undertakes work with a range of large scale social survey and administrative data resources. She has particular methodological interests in measuring education, occupations and social class, longitudinal data analysis techniques, and open social science. She is Editor of Methodological Innovations, Sage’s flagship social science research methods journal.
“It’s wonderful to acknowledge the outstanding work of our undergraduate social science students. The UK Data Service offers a wealth of high-quality social science data resources that enable extensive analysis across various fields. It’s impressive to see the many innovative applications of these data.”
Dr. Alex Bryson
Alex is a Professor of Quantitative Social Science at UCL’s Social Research Institute. He is also a Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, the IZA Institute of Labor Economics and WISERD (Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data). Additionally, he is Chief Editor of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, as well as being an editor of The Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A and the Journal of Participation and Employee Ownership.
“It’s important to recognise the efforts of young scholars through this ESRC award. Let’s hope we see more and more quantitative social scientists submitting their work in coming years”
Dr. Jen Buckley
Jen is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, plus a part of the UK Data Service Training and User Support team. She develops training and resources to support the use of social data in research and teaching, with a particular interest in data skills development in higher education.
“The Dissertation Award is a great opportunity for students. I always enjoy seeing the range of work submitted each year and what can be achieved using data from the UK Data Service. It’s not about using the most advanced methods, but about using data thoughtfully to answer clear and engaging research questions.”
The panel will select three winners and each winning entry will receive a £300 award, plus publicity via the UK Data Service website, blog and newsletter.
The deadline is 12:00 (midday) on Wednesday 1 July 2026 and entry is open to any undergraduate at a UK university who:
- Is writing a dissertation on a social science topic, submitted in the 2025-2026 academic year.
- Has used data from the UK Data Service data catalogue, either for their entire, or part of their, analysis.
Find more information and submit an entry on the Dissertation Award page.