Developing Sustainability Pathways for Social Simulation Tools and Services

Our strategy for building a sustainable infrastructure and services for social simulation has three elements: 1) developing of a pilot service for delivery to a selected UK market sector; 2) establishing the technical requirements for social simulation infrastructure and services; and 3) researching the wider market potential and business models for sustainable social simulation services.

For the pilot social simulation service we have chosen to focus on the UK academic sector, and on graduate training provision in particular. This choice is informed by a number of factors: first, our experience of delivering training for this sector (including a seminar on social simulation at the Oxford DTC in June 2011); second, the potential for significant impact from introducing early career researchers to social simulation; and third, our familiarity with many of the key groups and stakeholders within it.

A training infrastructure (t-infrastructure) is needed to underpin these training activities and it is important to note that this involves not merely the provision of computational and storage resources but also organisational arrangements such as technical support and administration, including the booking of facilities and managing any funding streams. The arrangements made need to be closely aligned with the provisions for production use of a social simulation infrastructure to give students a training experience that will readily translate into practice.

The experience of providing social simulation services to the North West and White Rose DTCs will be used to develop a migration pathway, including business models, which will support the diffusion of these services both to other DTCs and to other sectors.
The NeISS and Talisman projects have established contacts to a number of distinct sectors and user communities in I) Research (e.g. Geography; Transport; Town Planning; Social Policy; Health Sciences; Economics; nationally and internationally), II) Teaching (Higher and Secondary Education; Professional Organisations), III) Policy decision making and planning (e.g. Housing; Transport; Work & Pensions; Local Councils; Central Government; NGO), IV) the Public Sector (Individuals; Community Organisations; Special Interest Groups), and V) the Business Sector (e.g. Consultants; Data Providers; Utilities; Insurance Companies; Retailers). Cultivating and widening our scope and user community is an ongoing activity.

The provision of sustainable, powerful social simulation services will have wide benefits across all major sectors of the economy.

Social simulation models, in particular those with a strong geospatial component, have a wide range of applications across social science domains, many of which have been actively explored through the NeISS project and the NCeSS GENeSIS node. Both micro-simulation and agent-based modelling have been widely adopted within economics, sociology and geography. Simulation models have also provoked high levels of interest in healthcare research, anthropology and political science. Policy interest is substantial at local and national government levels in a range of forecasting scenarios, including transport, housing, education and healthcare, and within the private sector.

The experience gained in this project of providing social simulation services to the North West and White Rose DTCs will be used to develop a migration pathway, including business models, which will support the diffusion of these services both to other DTCs and to other sectors.

The NeISS project and Talisman NCRM node have established contacts to a number of distinct sectors and user communities in I) Research (e.g. Geography; Transport; Town Planning; Social Policy; Health Sciences; Economics; nationally and internationally), II) Teaching (Higher and Secondary Education; Professional Organisations), III) Policy decision making and planning (e.g. Housing; Transport; Work & Pensions; Local Councils; Central Government; NGO), IV) the Public Sector (Individuals; Community Organisations; Special Interest Groups), and V) the Business Sector (e.g. Consultants; Data Providers; Utilities; Insurance Companies; Retailers). Cultivating and widening our scope and user community is an ongoing activity.