Driving future impact: New investment for ADR UK
This year marked a crucial milestone for the delivery of ADR UK’s mission, as UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) confirmed our next five years of funding.
This £168 million reinvestment will allow us to expand on the impact the ADR UK programme has delivered so far, enabling more data-driven research to uncover insights that can improve people’s lives across the UK.
The renewed funding means continued support for our ground-breaking data linking and research projects across the UK-wide partnership. Read more about our new and emerging datasets, and developments from our key projects this year which will inform our future funding period.
We are delighted that DSIT, UKRI and ESRC have confirmed their ongoing support for our vital data linking and research programme. This commitment will ensure the expertise, infrastructure and momentum we have developed since we formed in 2018 will continue to expand for the benefit of all UK nations. We look forward to continuing our support and funding for trusted research environments, delivering more important linked datasets for research, and growing our network of accredited researchers to generate unique insights that inform policy change for public good.
Delivering on our big ambitions
In the next investment phase, ADR UK will be supporting a range of research programmes, including projects to improve cancer detection using health and administrative data through the Cancer Data Driven Detection programme in partnership with Cancer Research UK and others.
The funding will also support the development of policies to help drive economic growth and improve living standards by enabling ADR UK to further expand the linked economic datasets available to researchers and policymakers. These will support critical projects aiming to better understand the drivers of UK productivity by linking employment, business, benefits and income data, giving policymakers a more complete picture of how the UK economy works.
Data is absolutely vital when making key policy decisions to help transform lives for the better, and the Administrative Data Research UK partnership has shown that in practice, from helping to secure pay rises for millions, smashing the glass ceiling for underrepresented groups and cracking down on crime that blights our streets. By investing £168m of government funding to extend this programme, we are backing our world class researchers to build on this work, unlocking more of the data they need to improve lives and deliver the economic growth and opportunity as part of our Plan for Change.
Making a positive impact on people’s lives
ADR UK’s work has delivered transformational impact for people across the UK. Read some recent impact stories from the last year.
Over the longer-term, impacts from ADR UK research projects include:
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providing key evidence through linked administrative data analysis to support continuation of the minimum alcohol unit pricing policies in Scotland, estimated to save 156 lives per year
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identifying critical recommendations to improve outcomes for care experienced children through analysis of the ADR UK Growing Up in England dataset
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ongoing societal and economic benefits of the Data First programme, which links Ministry of Justice data to provide rich data insights that directly inform policies related to the reduction of reoffending
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providing the evidence needed to plan a safe return to school for children and young people in Wales during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reinvestment decision follows the results of an independent economic evaluation in November 2024, which estimated that for every £1 spent on ADR UK, the programme returns just over £5 of benefits.
Securing the future of administrative data research for public good
We are now identifying the wider opportunities this investment allows, including expanding ADR UK's Fellowship and PhD programmes, strengthening links between researchers and policymakers, and enhancing collaboration across social research.
The funding will also support further delivery of ADR UK’s training and capacity building programme, equipping researchers with skills to use linked administrative data for public good and therefore securing a pipeline of researchers into the future. A synthetic data initiative will also be scaled up, enabling researchers to test analyses before accessing secure data.
This long-term commitment to the programme will ensure ADR UK can continue to take a leading role in ensuring public data is used for public good.
