Silvana
set up SdG Associates at the end of 1996 after over 20 years in academia
as a qualitative researcher in the field of social gerontology, as a lecturer
in social policy and finally, as Director of Graduate Research Training
at Cranfield School of Management, U.K. She was very aware of the need for
staff development in research skills, particularly qualitative research
skills, in the university sector. The new development in software for qualitative
analysis provided an opportunity to start to address that need.She had been involved for many years in supervising practitioner-research studies and in supervising doctoral theses. She built up an extensive knowledge of applied research in health, social policy, education, and management. In addition, to her skills as a sociologist, she has been a beta tester for both NUD*IST 4 and NVIVO. She has been an Honorary Tutor at QSR's NUD*IST summer school in Melbourne, Australia. She has worked with Banxia Software on developing the link between Decision Explorer and NUD*IST. The researcher in her is constantly exploring new software and developments in software and their implications for research methodology. Her knowledge of a range of software tools as well as a range of approaches to qualitative analysis makes her well placed to advise on a variety of types of research projects. Besides her workshop programmes in London, UK and Boston, USA, she travels around the UK, Ireland, Europe and the USA running customised training for university departments, health organisations and commercial clients.