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The Economic and Social Research Council has been given a prestigious award by the UK's top businesses.

Members of the Demographics User Group (DUG), which represents major companies including Barclays, Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's, have commended the ESRC for its increasing focus on retail research, and developing training in quantitative skills.

ESRC Council member David Martin will collect the award on the ESRC's behalf at a prize ceremony which will take place at the DUG's Annual Conference at the Royal Society on 9 October 2013.

Keith Dugmore, the Director of DUG says:

"During the last two decades, retail companies have become very data-rich. Businesses which provide a wide range of services to millions of customers every day make use of data from many different sources - especially government - to make decisions about their operations and future investments. Many have also accumulated large files of information to better understand customers, their transactions, and locations. However, until recently, there has only been modest interest and support for academic research in this area."

"The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) has now taken very significant steps to change this, with a series of initiatives to increase the academic focus on retail research, and also to develop training in quantitative skills."

"Members of the Demographics User Group (DUG) warmly welcome these developments, which will increase understanding, trigger innovation, improve services to customers, and promote efficiency and growth."

Paul Boyle, Chief Executive of ESRC said:

"We are delighted and extremely grateful to the DUG for this prestigious honour, in recognition of our efforts to increase the academic focus on retail research."

"ESRC initiatives in this area have included the appointment of Retail Knowledge Navigators to facilitate communication between the social science research base and retailers, and the £2.5 million Retail Sector Initiative for collaborative projects to undertake research and knowledge exchange activities."

"Work by the ESRC's Retail Data Knowledge Navigators has also enabled store location analysts to get easy access to free datasets of value to their businesses."

The ESRC is continuing to invest in retail research, including the £2.5 million Retail Sector Initiative which is supporting collaborative projects to undertake research and knowledge exchange activities. It is also looking at proposals for a series of Business and Local Government Data Research Centres.

ESRC Press Office:

• Sarah Nichols
  Email: sarah.nichols@esrc.ac.uk
  Telephone: 01793 413122
• Susie Watts
  Email: susie.watts@esrc.ac.uk
  Telephone: 01793 413119

Notes for editors

1. The Economic and Social Research Council is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2012/13 is £205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.
2. The Quantitative Methods Programme (Q-Step), developed by ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), aims to promote a step-change in the quantitative skills of UK social science undergraduates.
3. DUG's 16 member companies are: Barclays, Boots, Camelot, Centrica, Co-operative Group, E.ON, EE, GlaxoSmithKline, John Lewis, Just Eat, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury's, Serco, Swinton Insurance, Tesco, Whitbread