ADR Scotland

During the forthcoming year, ADR Scotland has ambitious plans to ingest and update further datasets - including data from outside the Scottish Government. ADR Scotland plans to make these datasets securely available for approved researchers to apply to access in the Scottish National Safe Haven. The team will also be running events and developing materials to support these datasets and their wider use.

To further promote policy engagement and impact from administrative data research, the Data with Impact series will run themed events across 2024-25 on topics such as palliative care and the environment. The ADR Scotland team also looks forward to building on their children’s engagement work and creating accessible content for children and young people, including an info-comic on kinship care.

ADR Scotland will continue to work with delivery bodies to build on the Researcher Access Service and methods developed by the Alliance Technical Group. Together, they will continue efforts towards reducing the time taken to get research projects in the public good approved and underway.

Work is progressing on the Scottish Historic Population Platform, which aims to create a research-ready database based on Scottish civil registration certificates between 1855 and 1973. The team hopes to have software and a data platform available in 2025, helping to build capacity to undertake unique life-course and intergenerational research in Scotland.

ADR Scotland is exploring new areas and how these might develop existing research programmes further, including examining fundamental issues for Scotland. Key examples under consideration are housing research to respond to Scotland’s national housing emergency, and the environment including housing energy efficiency, fuel poverty and carbon emissions. Other areas of interest include child poverty and social care.