The University of Southampton (UoS) is one of the leading universities in the United Kingdom and is a member of prestigious Russell Group of UK Universities. UoS has more than 16,000 undergraduate students and 6,200 postgraduates and is an excellent venue for conducting cutting-edge research and for providing high quality education. The university is truly international, drawing students from over 130 different countries and benefiting from a wide and varied culture. It is ranked in the top 1% of universities worldwide (QS world university rankings 2014-15), in the top 15 of research led universities in the UK (REF 2014), and is participating in a large number of collaborative research projects and related initiatives. UoS has a successful track record of industrial collaborations and is at the centre of a cluster of local high technology companies. It has an enviable track record in the generation of patentable work, with a portfolio of over 350 patents. To ensure the impact of its research projects, University of Southampton’s Research & Innovation Services (R&IS) is responsible for professional protection of IP and supporting commercial development with industry. R&IS has had considerable success, licensing annual revenue in excess of €1million and launching twelve successful spin-out companies since 2000. 

UoS has a strong track record of working in European projects, especially within the Framework Programme. The EC 7th FP7 Monitoring Report ranked UoS 15th out of all higher and secondary education organisations for number of FP7 participations during 2007-2013. Throughout the FP7 UoS has received €132M in research grants and has been involved in 318 projects, including 5 SSH Collaborative Projects. Since the start of H2020 Southampton has been awarded 89 grants worth over €56M. In 2014/15 alone UoS received €180M in research grants and contracts. 

The Department of Social Statistics and Demography and the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) is part of the Faculty of Social, Human and Mathematical Sciences (FSHMS). FSHMS is one of the largest and most successful social and human and Mathematical sciences faculties in the UK, educating a range of professionals and generating research of the highest quality. FSHS consists of 3,610 undergraduate, 1,650 postgraduate students, 380 academic and 120 other staff. FSHMS is home to five Academic units and four Research Centres. The Faculty spans a wide range of disciplines including Social Sciences, Geography, Education, Psychology and Mathematics. According to the REF 2014 FSHMS is one of the leading faculties in the country for quality of research. 100% of research activity in Mathematical Sciences (including Statistics) has been rated of internationally excellent or world-leading quality; the School of Social Sciences fuses specialist research excellence and world-class interdisciplinary work and its research activity is rated top 5 in the country for Social Statistics and Demography, Criminology, Gerontology and Sociology. FSHS has a strong background in working on international research projects, including 28 FP7 projects (14 Collaborative projects) worth around €7.5M of research income. In 2014/15 only FSHS has received about €13.5M in research grants and contracts, of which over €0.5M from the European Commission.