The year ahead

As ADR UK looks ahead to completing the first full year of our new investment period, we will continue to lead delivery and facilitation of administrative data research across the UK that delivers impact for the public.

For more detail on some key UK-wide projects coming up this year, read on. To explore plans by national partner, head down this page. 

Investment in new ADR UK research fellows and PhD studentships

This year will see our newest cohort of ADR UK Research Fellows begin their projects, covering a range of topics from special educational needs provision to reducing reoffending. We will support them as they use ADR UK’s flagship datasets to generate new insights, delivering vital evidence to inform policy and practice. 

Part of this support will involve piloting a policy bootcamp, to help fellows embed policy engagement throughout their research and ultimately, to help ensure their findings inform action. We are also looking ahead to launching further rounds of fellowship funding in the coming year. 

In the months ahead we will also confirm the funded ADR UK PhD studentships to be hosted by Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Partnerships across the UK. This programme will see a cohort of PhD students working with our flagship datasets to conduct analysis and build their skills in administrative data research. Recruitment will take place in time for the studentships to begin in October 2027.

New economic data research for policy impact

We look forward to further policy-relevant findings emerging across our flagship datasets over the coming year. In particular, we will begin to see results from the first analysis of the newly available RAPID: Population interactions with employment, benefits and pensions – UK dataset. This dataset enables population-level analysis of employment, benefit and pension activities and associated income, meaning that insights generated using the data could have significant implications for policy to inform economic growth. 

In supporting these insights, we will work with the newly announced ADR UK Academic Lead team for economic data as they begin their five-year programme of work with the Department for Work and Pensions and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, to maximise the public value of RAPID and other ADR UK economic datasets.

Communicating our work to the public

ADR UK will continue to communicate our work publicly in new and engaging ways. This year we plan to expand our audiovisual content, building on our new brand and visual identity which launched this year. We will continue to release new episodes of the Connecting Society podcast, providing a route for public audiences to consider and engage with discussions around data and society.

Finally, over the coming year we look forward to working towards the ADR UK Conference 2027. Hosted in partnership with ADR NI in Belfast, the conference will bring together the administrative data research community to share findings and build connections.