ADR Northern Ireland
This year has seen significant developments at ADR Northern Ireland, including the establishment of a new All-Party Group on Policy and Public Data at the Northern Ireland Assembly, where Administrative Data Research Centre Northern Ireland (ADRC NI, part of ADR NI) holds secretariat responsibility. Here, the need to highlight and enhance the value of administrative data for research and policymaking has been explored further.
Also established this year was the Northern Ireland Public Data Panel (NIPDP), the first public forum of its kind in Northern Ireland to discuss the use of public data with members of the public. Delivered by ADRC NI in partnership with the Department of Health’s NI Trusted Research Environment, NIPDP is already seen as key data engagement infrastructure across the data ecosystem.
Training and capacity building needs assessment
To better support researchers to engage with these new impact and engagement opportunities, we have developed and conducted a training and capacity building needs assessment with researchers. The results are informing a new Training and Capacity Building Strategy and Public Engagement and Involvement training for researchers. The survey was also replicated across the ADR UK partnership to inform wider training and capacity building activities.
ADR Northern Ireland has continued to drive forward data acquisition developments, including the delivery of rich new or enhanced research resources in the areas of:
- education (Education Outcomes Linkage 2019/20 -2021/22)
- population (Census 2021 Comprehensive Microdata)
- income (Cross Government Income Administrative Dataset).
There has been significant development in the new Administrative Data | Agricultural Research Collection dataset for NI and phase 2 of Business Data for Research (due for release in the next few months), as well as the ongoing development of Longitudinal Education Outcomes for Northern Ireland.
Disability and employment transitions research published
This year ADR Northern Ireland also published key ADR UK-funded research on disability and employment transitions (2011–2021). In 2024, a quick read summary of 2001–2011 based disability and employment research was published highlighting factors linked to sustained employment and an updated 2021 disability employment gap.
Following successful five-year reaccreditation in 2024 for the provision and preparation of data under the Digital Economy Act 2017, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA, part of ADR NI) successfully achieved annual accreditation in May 2025.
ADRC NI has gone from strength to strength this year, delivering high-quality, data-driven research and developing innovative new ways to connect to decision makers and the public. We continue to work closely with partners across the voluntary and community sector, establishing new avenues to directly involve those with lived experience in our work, while also championing the power of data research at the highest levels of government. I look forward to deepening our important work on issues like poverty and homelessness while also welcoming new administrative data researchers to the ADRC NI family
This was an important year of delivery for the ADR NI partnership. Researchers now have access to a number of important administrative data assets which can enable more in-depth, policy-focused research on secondary educational attainment, business and economy, and income and benefits. A particular highlight was the launch event of the second phase of the Educational Outcomes Linkage dataset, which signalled multi-organisational support for this work and a keen interest in the development of the Longitudinal Educational Outcomes for Northern Ireland dataset. NISRA researchers have continued to support research providing granular insights into ethnicity, disability, and employment in Northern Ireland. With all of these developments, we continue to contribute to a cross-departmental approach to evidence for policymaking.
New dataset to examine social policy impacts on inequality
The Cross Government Income Administrative Dataset (CGIAD) 2019/20, released in November 2024, brings together Northern Ireland income data from benefits, earnings, tax credits, and savings.
The project involved close collaboration between NISRA’s Research Support Unit and the Department for Communities, with support from HMRC, Department for Work and Pensions, and the NI Housing Executive. These partnerships were key to the dataset’s creation and it is hoped will pave the way for future data linkages and collaborative research.
Using CGIAD, researchers at ADRC NI have been exploring inequality and poverty in Northern Ireland, to complement existing survey-based quantitative analysis. The research programme aims to use additional administrative data linkages across the UK to examine social policy impacts on inequality and provide actionable insights for policymakers.
The team has produced preliminary estimates of poverty rates and various measures of income inequality for Northern Ireland, both at an aggregate level and disaggregated by demographic group and by local government geographic districts. These initial findings provide an early insight into the distribution of income across the population and suggest areas where disparities may be most pronounced.
Over the coming months, the team will work to refine and improve these estimates; to investigate the structure of inequality more deeply; to explore the key correlates of poverty in the data; and to benchmark our results against established survey-based poverty and inequality metrics for Northern Ireland and other parts of the UK.
NI partnership examines employment and health outcomes for disabled people
ADR NI researchers from NISRA and Queen’s University Belfast have been collaborating on research examining employment and health outcomes for disabled people.
Historically, most evidence in Northern Ireland regarding employment and health outcomes for disabled people has relied on cross-sectional snapshots from population surveys and census data. However, limited research exists on the long‑term health and employment outcomes for individuals who either experience early-life disability apparent in childhood or acquire a disability in adulthood (e.g. because of an accident or illness).
This research aims to bridge this gap by using the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study to comprehensively examine participation of disabled people in the labour market, examining potential changes in their experiences over time. An initial policy brief was published in May 2025, with more comprehensive analysis underway and plans for further policy and community engagement in development.
New tools developed by NI researchers to measure the impact of deprivation
Deprivation and disadvantage are known to play a role in many issues facing society, such as health inequalities, food and fuel poverty, employment, and educational outcomes.
To better measure and understand how deprivation impacts people in Northern Ireland, ADRC NI researchers have been developing and evaluating new tools to measure this using administrative data.
Recently, the team at Ulster University completed a detailed statistical interrogation of the 2017 Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure to inform the next iteration of this important measure. Another team of researchers at Ulster University have developed and tested a new area-level 'Food Insecurity Index' using administrative data. This will soon be available to researchers across NI.
These measures represent powerful new tools developed with administrative data to help researchers and policymakers understand deprivation, poverty and food insecurity in Northern Ireland, and design better policy and service interventions.
