Key developments across the partnership
This year, ADR UK has agreed the priorities and activities for the final two years of the current investment period, which runs to March 2026. This has enabled a variety of significant developments across the partnership, with ADR UK’s core partners delivering their workplans and allocating an additional £1.2 million of funding to key activities. This has been a chance for ADR UK to renew efforts towards transforming administrative data research in the UK, taking us closer to our vision for 2026.
New initiatives to transform the administrative data research landscape
ADR UK has supported ground-breaking new initiatives this year to advance our mission. In March, the programme announced a £100,000 grant to His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to explore how to improve research through HMRC’s administrative data. This data includes information on tax, benefits and credits. With ADR UK funding, HMRC will assess current cataloguing and governance of HMRC data used for research; explore ways to improve the HMRC data accessed by researchers; and facilitate greater engagement between HMRC and the research community. Results from this work will inform HMRC’s future direction and drive impactful research which improves the tax evidence base.
This year ADR UK also announced joint funding with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for two projects exploring the use of low-fidelity synthetic data. One project is collecting insights on the perspectives of data owners and providers on the potential benefits, costs and utility of synthetic data for administrative data research. The other is leading a public consultation to explore the public’s understanding of synthetic data and their attitudes to it for research purposes.
Building communities around a shared vision
November saw the ADR UK Conference 2023 kick off in Birmingham. Delivered in partnership with the Office for National Statistics, the conference focused on the theme of ‘Public data for resilience and inclusion: Using administrative data to inform policy and practice in challenging times’. The week brought almost 400 delegates together to hear from inspiring speakers and exchange knowledge and ideas across the sector. An extremely positive response showed the appetite within the community to develop and sustain these connections.
Building communities like this for the future is also a priority for the programme – which is why this year has seen the induction of 22 PhD studentships supported by ADR UK. Hosted at institutions across 13 of ESRC’s Doctoral Training Partnerships in all four UK nations, these PhD studentships will use ADR UK flagship datasets to answer policy-relevant questions. A significant milestone in ADR UK’s Training & Capacity Building Strategy, these studentships reflect our ambition to increase the number of researchers trained to analyse complex linked datasets. This aim has also been supported this year through the return of the ADR UK Data Roadshow – which raises the profile of administrative data for new groups of researchers – and the development of community groups on the ADR UK website.
Reaching new audiences
As the ADR UK programme continues to progress, it’s vital that we continue to engage with new groups, make our content accessible and communicate our mission in new ways. For the research community, we have refined and developed key resources this year such as the ADR UK Data Catalogue and Learning Hub. By increasing and improving the information and support available to researchers hoping to use administrative data, ADR UK is removing barriers and building capacity for public good research.
Meanwhile, ADR UK has been exploring new ways to communicate with the public this year. At the heart of ADR UK’s mission is the commitment to demonstrating transparency and building trust in the research use of administrative data, as well as inspiring the public with the real-world benefits of these research insights. This year we’ve tapped into public conversations like Love Data Week, highlighting data-driven change across our programme. ADR UK teams and funded researchers have created new ways to share vital insights, such as animations and a young person’s paper. And with Connecting Society: How everyday data shapes our lives – a new podcast by ADR UK – due to launch soon, ADR UK looks forward to bringing the conversation about the exciting possibilities of administrative data research to a whole new audience.
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ADR England
ADR England’s portfolio of research-ready data projects has delivered exciting developments this year, enhancing the breadth ADR England flagship datasets available to accredited researchers.
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ADR Northern Ireland
This has been a year of both obstacles and opportunities for ADR NI. The sad passing of ADRC NI's inimitable Director, Professor Dermot O'Reilly, in October 2023, was a challenge for all of us. However, in the spirit of Dermot, we have been working hard to deliver high-quality, policy-relevant research and data access to improve the lives of people in Northern Ireland and continue his legacy.
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ADR Scotland
This year there have been significant developments for ADR Scotland, including a new Researcher Access Service to help transform the way researchers access data. This service is being delivered by Research Data Scotland and Public Health Scotland. ADR Scotland has seen a marked increase in the speed and efficiency of the process to ingest datasets. This has led to a wider range of datasets being made available through the National Safe Haven for research across many policy areas.
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ADR Wales
This year has seen the ADR Wales team continue to assist the data science community in overcoming barriers, with the common goal of producing insightful research delivered in a safe, secure, and ethical manner.
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ONS
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) plays a crucial role in sourcing, linking, and curating public sector data for ADR UK, ensuring that data is accessed by researchers safely and securely. With the support of ADR UK funding, the ONS continues to expand, improve and increase the range of administrative data available in the ONS Secure Research Service.
About ADR UK
ADR UK is made up of four national partnerships – ADR England, ADR Northern Ireland, ADR Scotland and ADR Wales – as well as the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The partnership is coordinated by a team based in the Economic and Social Research Council. This structure allows each UK nation to have a dedicated trusted research environment and research expertise, focusing on its national policy needs while also enabling UK-wide coordination, learning and collaboration.
Each ADR UK partner works closely with expert researchers from academic institutions and other research bodies, as well as government data owners and policymakers, to support research that fills key evidence gaps and informs policy and practice. This helps to connect academia and government, ensuring that insights from administrative data research can be used to improve society.
ADR England is a portfolio of data linking, research and training and capacity building projects delivered by a range of government and academic partners.
This portfolio is managed by the ADR UK Strategic Hub. Data for ADR England projects is mostly accessed via the Office for National Statistics Secure Research Service.
