ADR Northern Ireland
This year ADR NI has further grown the programme across data curation, policy engagement, public involvement, and more.
A key focus has been continuing to drive forward the acquisition of administrative data for research through the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA), including the delivery of rich new research datasets.
New datasets acquired covered a range of themes including business, agriculture, education and employment. Examples include:
- Business Data for Research 2022: available to all accredited researchers in November 2025
- Administrative Data | Agricultural Research Collection 2011: available to all accredited researchers in May 2026
- Longitudinal Education Outcomes NI: available to all accredited researchers in July 2026
- Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings linked to Census 2021: available to all accredited researchers in August 2026.
The Business Data for Research (BDR) 2022 dataset has received sustained research interest, with four research projects currently underway as of June 2026. NISRA is currently working on significant enhancements to the 2023 edition of BDR in response to researcher and stakeholder feedback.
Impactful data research
ADR NI delivered linked-data research, policy engagement and public involvement across themes including air pollution, education, homelessness, children’s social care, prescribing, mortality and health inequalities. Key outputs included papers on air pollution and Parkinson’s disease, health and educational attainment, mortality risk in underserved groups, social mobility and deprivation, and maternity outcomes related to intimate partner violence, alongside new data resource profiles for SOSCARE and the Enhanced Prescribing Database.
This year, NISRA also published key ADR UK-funded research on deaths due to suicide, drugs and alcohol; employment transitions; and post-prison mortality.
Strengthening policy engagement
ADR NI activity to strengthen policy engagement this year included:
- Policy briefs and consultation responses
- Presenting evidence to the UN Special Rapporteur (download)
- Providing the secretariat to the All-Party Group on Policy and Public Data
- Briefing the Committee for Communities, supporting discussion on poverty, homelessness, data sharing and service improvement.
Findings and learning from our research were shared with policy and research audiences across Northern Ireland and the wider UK to ensure impact.
Public engagement and co-production remained central to our work. This included involving the public in shaping research through NI Public Data Panel activity, Experts by Experience workshops with Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC), and lived experience group workshops with Homeless Connect. This work was recognised through an ADR UK Partnership Recognition Award for its public engagement model.
Growing the profile and impact of ADR NI
Overall, this year's research outputs and engagement activities increased the visibility of ADR NI and generated growing engagement with policymakers and elected representatives, including invitations to contribute evidence to Assembly discussions on homelessness, poverty and the role of data sharing and linkage in informing policy.
This year marks the transition to an ambitious new five-year investment for ADR NI as we continue to strengthen vital government and academic partnerships. We have established new linked datasets across agriculture, business, employment and education, all of which are remotely accessible and serve to unlock valuable insights for Northern Ireland. We are also seeing growing impact from our research in key areas including mortality, ethnicity and employment. Together, these achievements position ADR NI to further support high-quality, evidence-informed policy development.
Over the past year, ADRC NI has continued to build on its successes, producing robust, policy-relevant research and expanding the ways in which evidence is shared with policymakers, practitioners and the wider public. We have strengthened our partnerships across the voluntary and community sector, creating meaningful opportunities to involve people with lived experience in shaping our research. At the same time, we have continued to demonstrate the value of data-driven research in informing decision-making and influencing policy at the highest levels of government.
ADR NI research spotlight: Children’s social care and homelessness in Northern Ireland - Connecting Data, Changing Futures
ADRC NI research is using linked administrative data and lived experience expertise to better understand the relationship between children’s social care contact and youth homelessness in Northern Ireland.
The project brings together population-level evidence on young people’s interactions with public services and the perspectives of care-experienced young people. Findings show that homelessness risk is often patterned, predictable and visible within public systems before homelessness occurs. The research challenges narrow understandings of youth homelessness as a sudden crisis or individual failure, instead highlighting the role of early adversity, transitions, support gaps and missed opportunities for prevention.
In March 2026, ADRC NI hosted Children’s Social Care and Homelessness in Northern Ireland: Connecting Data, Changing Futures at Parliament Buildings, Stormont. Sponsored by Kate Nicholl, Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA), the event brought together experts by experience (people who have lived experience of the issues discussed), policymakers, data owners, service providers and researchers. The session explored how linked administrative data and lived experience can inform policy and practice to prevent homelessness among young people with experience of social care. ADR NI Co-Director Dr Aideen Maguire and researcher Dr Sarah McKenna gave presentations, alongside discussion with representatives from Voice of Young People in Care (VOYPIC), government departments and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
A key feature of the work was its commitment to co-production and accessible communication. Alongside the research report, ADRC NI premiered an animation designed and narrated by care-experienced young people, helping to communicate the findings to wider audiences in a way that amplifies the voices of those with lived experience of social care.
Dr Aideen Maguire, Co-Director of ADR NI said: “This research shines a long overdue light on the factors associated with homelessness risk in young people known to social services in Northern Ireland. And it did so by using data and information that service providers already had. Linked administrative data research is an integral tool to better inform policy and practice, and co-production with the young people ensures these data represent appropriate and accurate interpretation and representation, working together to improve outcomes for all.”
This work is important because it reframes homelessness among social care-experienced young people as a preventable, systemic issue linked to transitions, support gaps and missed opportunities for intervention. By combining linked data with lived experience, the project is helping inform more joined-up policy and practice across health, social care and homelessness services, supporting earlier intervention and better outcomes for young people.
The project has stimulated wider policy discussion on the role of linked administrative data in addressing social challenges. This has resulted in engagement with MLAs, evidence provided by ADRC NI to the Committee for Communities, and contributions to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive’s (NIHE) 2022–2027 Homelessness Strategy “Ending Homelessness Together” Year 4 Action Plan. ADRC NI, through partnership with the Health and Homelessness Research Steering Group, is providing local evidence from linked administrative data research to support NIHE’s policy and practice.
