International Centre for Life course Studies in Society and Health: Centre Mid-Term Review Proposal

ESRC社会与健康生命课程研究国际中心(ICLS)是一个联合社会科学和生物科学方法的多学科研究小组。我们的工作着眼于人们生活的社会环境如何在生命过程的所有阶段转化为糟糕的健康和不利的社会结果，描述和理解从童年到健康和富有成效的工作生活的垫脚石，以及在晚年维持健康和福祉。人们普遍认为，这些垫脚石从儿童早期就开始了，涉及社会、心理和生理过程，因此将跨学科的工作结合起来非常重要。国际生物科学中心有三个关键的战略优先事项：建设分析纵向量化数据集的能力；在社会科学和生物科学之间架起桥梁；发展国际协作研究网络。英国以其丰富的研究而闻名，这些研究收集了大量人从出生到一生的信息。然而，拥有分析这些复杂数据所需技能的科学家一直并将继续短缺。国际最不发达国家委员会的一个优先事项仍然是建设这一领域的能力，培训没有量化背景的社会科学家分析这类数据的技能。我们知道，人们生活的环境是隐藏在皮肤下的，但人们对这种情况是如何发生的知之甚少--社会环境是如何进入细胞和分子导致疾病和过早死亡的？国际最不发达国家联盟的第二个优先事项是就如何最好地结合在纵向研究中收集的关于社会环境、心理特征和生物概况的信息，以从社会和生物学角度来看在理论上可信的方式提出想法。目前来自美国、加拿大、澳大利亚、欧洲大陆、中国、印度、巴西、日本和韩国的纵向数据集的激增为调查人员提供了令人兴奋的机会，这为国际最高法院的第三个优先事项提供了背景，即建设国际合作研究网络。在ICLS第一阶段，我们建立了一个国际研究网络，由来自24个机构的35多名顶尖学者组成，代表大约20个国家。在第二阶段，我们的目标是通过与我们的国际网络成员合作研究建议，为ICLS吸引更多资金。为ICLS第二阶段提出的科学计划是在以前ICLS工作的基础上提出的，同时具有独特的创新特点。我们的科学方案围绕四个主题组织，其中前三个主题描绘了人生历程：(A)童年和青春期的幸福--这里的重点是从出生到25岁获得良好健康和教育成就的途径；(B)工作、健康和幸福--审查了男女角色转换对有偿和无偿工作的健康后果，以及从事“低质量”工作的健康后果；(C)对成功老龄化的社会影响--考虑到退休年龄后继续从事有偿工作对健康的重要性，并比较不同国际背景下的成功老龄化；最重要的主题是(D)社会-生物接口--社会流动性和健康之间的途径是重点。科学方案的成果将面向广泛的受益者。学者将主要通过在学术期刊和会议报告上发表文章来获得我们的研究成果。我们将与政府接触，通过情况说明书、政策研讨会和简报提供建议和证据。同样，我们也与广泛的非政府组织接触。我们工作的用户参与到研究过程的所有阶段，以最大限度地提高其效益。我们通过我们的网站、新闻和广播媒体以及公开研讨会向公众提供研究证据。

The ESRC International Centre for Life Course Studies in Society and Health (ICLS) is a multidisciplinary research group who unite approaches from the social and biological sciences. Our work looks at how the social circumstances in which people live are translated into poor health and unfavourable social outcomes across all stages of the life course, describing and understanding the stepping stones from childhood towards a healthy and productive working life and the maintenance of health and wellbeing in the later years. It is widely accepted that these stepping stones begin in early childhood and involve social, psychological and physiological processes, hence the importance of combining work across disciplines. ICLS has three key strategic priorities; to build capacity in the analysis of quantitative longitudinal datasets; to bridge the social and biological sciences; and to develop international collaborative research networks. The UK is renowned for its wealth of studies that collect information on large numbers of people from birth and throughout their lives. However, there has and continues to be a shortage of scientists with the requisite skills to analyse these complex data. A priority for ICLS continues to be building capacity in this area, training social scientists without quantitative backgrounds in the skills to analyse such data. We know that the contexts in which people live get under the skin, but little is known about how this happens - how do social circumstances get into the cells and molecules to cause disease and early death? A second ICLS priority is the development of ideas on how best to combine information collected in longitudinal studies, on social circumstances, psychological characteristics and biological profiles in ways that are theoretically plausible from both social and biological perspectives. The current proliferation of longitudinal datasets from the US, Canada, Australia, mainland Europe, China, India, Brazil, Japan and Korea provide exciting opportunities for investigators, giving the backdrop to ICLS' third priority which is to build international collaborative research networks. During ICLS phase one, we built an International Research Network of over 35 leading scholars from 24 institutions, representing some 20 countries. In phase 2 we aim to attract additional funding for ICLS through collaborative research proposals with members of our international network.The scientific programme proposed for ICLS phase two builds on previous ICLS work while having distinct innovative features. Our scientific programme is organized around four themes, the first three of which chart the lifecourse: (a) Well-being in childhood and adolescence - here the focus is on the pathways to good health and educational achievements from birth to 25 years of age; (b) Work, health and well-being - where the health consequences of changing roles of men and women in relation to paid and unpaid work are examined, as are the health consequences of working in 'poor quality' jobs; (c) Social influences on successful ageing - considering the importance for health of staying in paid employment beyond retirement age, and comparing successful aging in different international contexts; and an overarching theme (d) The social-biological interface - where pathways between social mobility and health are under focus.Outputs from the scientific programme will be targeted at a wide range of beneficiaries. Academics will receive our research findings mainly through publication in scholarly journals and conference presentations. We will engage with government, offering advice and evidence through factsheets, policy seminars and briefing notes. We are similarly engaged with a wide range of non-government organisations. Users of our work are involved in all stages of the research process to maximise its benefits. We provide research evidence to the public through our website, news and broadcast media and open seminars.