The Resource Centre assists ESRC in maintaining and developing the UK social science research base by providing networking services to the UK research community in economics and closely related social science disciplines. The Centre also provides support, as well as dissemination of research, to users and beneficiaries within the academic and policy communities.

The Resource Centre has improved upon its already successful record in assisting UK researchers to participate effectively in European and international networks and collaborative research programmes. The involvement of UK researchers in international networks has increased dramatically in the last year, with the commencement of various Training and Mobility of Researchers (TMR) networks, and with the Centre’s success in attracting other European funding, for example from Directorate General II of the European Commission and the Commission’s PHARE-ACE and TACIS-ACE research programmes. The Resource Centre has also been successful in involving a wide range of UK researchers in its activities, including the TMR networks, the regular research workshops, and through the assistance provided to UK economists in pursuing a variety of funding initiatives, such as the research grants scheme of the Banque de France.

The Resource Centre also assists researchers in dealing with the
media: the RES Media Consultant, for example, is based at the Centre.