This Research Networking Programme will provide a focal point for methodological innovation and advancement. It will focus on five areas of critical importance in quantitative methods:

•  Social interactions and social networks
•  Analysing the lifecourse
•  Cross-national comparisons
•  Immigration and population dynamics
•  Survey design and quality

It will bring together leading European experts across a wide range of methods and discipline areas. Through annual seminars and summer schools it will promote cutting-edge methods that will be disseminated to the new generation of European researchers. The seminars will provide a focal point where specialists from different disciplines and different countries will share their experience. These seminars will provide both the vision and the framework for planning the schools designed to train young European researchers in specific methods.

The programme represents a continuation of Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS), led by Chris Skinner at the University of Southampton.