Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE)

Following a public procurement, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has awarded the contract to run the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) to a consortium led by King's Business School at King's College London, with the following institutions:

• University of Cambridge
• Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Nesta
• University of New South Wales
• University of Nottingham
• University of Strathclyde

The contract will run from 1 January 2023 until 31 March 2028. This contract award is the second phase of ESCoE. The King's consortium illustrates strong partnerships with academics from a range of institutions, and further details will be announced on the ESCoE website.

ESCoE was formed in 2017 as a partnership between the ONS and a consortium led by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). It has developed into a centre of expertise for the analysis of emerging and future issues in measuring the modern economy.  

Notable achievements during this time include:

• new regional GDP estimates which were taken into production by ONS
• new telecoms deflators
• key Beyond GDP and digital economy research

The ONS would like to thank NIESR for its pivotal role in building the successful ESCoE brand and model. We are extremely grateful to NIESR for the strong foundations it has laid.

The centre provides the capacity for fundamental methodological and conceptual work, which will include best ways to address the challenge of measuring new forms of economic activity in a globalised world, meeting the needs for local, city and regional statistics and the productivity puzzle. Additionally, ESCoE forms a platform for constructive discussion and dialogue around official statistics, to feed into the development and improvement of ONS economic statistics and data processing methodologies.

ESCoE has the following responsibilities:

• deliver research and analysis that enables ONS to meet its vision of delivering world-class economic statistics

• deliver research and conceptual work which is influential in the international standard-setting agenda, allowing ONS to exert greater influence over the direction of travel of such standards

• deliver an international annual conference to facilitate the sharing of best practice and world-class challenge to the work of the ESCoE

• provide opportunities for joint working between the ONS and academic community

• work in collaboration with the ONS Data Science Campus to develop new techniques

• promote and develop a wider academic community with skills and research experience in economic statistics

For more information about ESCoE, including:

• research projects
• publications
• discussion paper series
• events

Visit the ESCoE website for further information to find out more about the research projects, discussion papers, seminars and events.