Earlier this year, in June 2018, Leo Varadkar (Irish Taoiseach) visited Northern Ireland. In Feature 11 - Not a snowball or protestor in sight! When a Taoiseach visits Belfast ... - Brendan Lynn (Deputy Director of CAIN) compares the organisation and public reception of the June visit with the planning and management of the visit of an earlier Taoiseach (Sean Lemass) in January 1965.

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For 20 years, ARK has been recording public attitudes to key social issues in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey began in 1998 and focuses on the opinion of adults. In 2003, Young Life and Times began monitoring the attitudes of 16 year olds, whilst Kids' Life and Times started recording the opinion of 10-11 year olds in 2008. These data provide authoritative, independent and statistically-robust evidence which is freely accessible to everyone.

At an event on 27 November, we will celebrate the wealth of data provided by the surveys. We will also launch a publication which outlines public attitudes over time to key social issues, and highlights the major contribution that the surveys have provided to policy making in Northern Ireland.

The event will take place on Tuesday 27 November, at 4pm to 5pm. This event is free of charge, but places need to be booked by Tuesday 20 November, by emailing e.gray@qub.ac.uk

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In this seminar, Lucy Michael (Ulster University) will review data from the 2017 Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey and Young Life and Times Survey on attitudes to refugees, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities. In addition, she will consider the extent to which refugees both represent a unique focus for attention within the immigrant population and also offer a proxy for other kinds of views on immigration.

The seminar will be held on Thursday 22 November, from 2.45 to 4pm, at NICVA, 1 Duncairn Gardens, Belfast BT15. 2GB. Refreshments will be available at 2.30pm.

This event is free of charge, but places need to be booked by Thursday 15 November, by emailing s.grant@ulster.ac.uk

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In 2017, Volunteer Now funded questions in the Young Life and Times Survey on the experiences of, and attitudes to, volunteering of 16 year olds. The findings from the survey, along with their implications, will be highlighted at an event on 5 December in Malone House, Belfast. (Please note the change of date)

The event is free, but places need to be booked in advance.

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One aim of ARK is produce high-quality information in a variety of formats. On our website, you can find a range of publications including

• ARK Features - evidence-based commentary on a topical issue
• Research Reports - comprehensive analysis of survey and other research data
• Research Updates - lay-friendly insight to research and survey findings
• Research Seminars and video resources - video recordings of events and commentary
• Policy Briefs - discussion of the impact of evidence on policy and legislation
• Books - in-depth analysis and discussion of key social and survey statistics
• Newsletters - our monthly update on ARK news, activities and events

The ARK team is also active in publishing articles in peer-reviewed academic journals. A list of these journal articles is now available on our website.

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ARK is Northern Ireland's social policy hub. Established in 2000 by researchers at Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University, its primary goal is to increase the accessibility and use of academic data and research. Most of our dissemination is via our website at www.ark.ac.uk, which is divided into five main areas:

• Surveys
• Projects
• Resources
• Publications
• Events

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