ADR UK is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives.
By linking together data held by different parts of government and facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up and de-identified data sets, ADR UK is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how our society and economy function –tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions.
ADR UK is made up of four national partnerships (ADR England, ADR Northern Ireland, ADR Scotland and ADR Wales) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Together they ensure data provided by UK government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data owners or the public.
The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub, which also promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK Government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget.
ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation.
“I’m proud for ADR UK to join the Alliance. We are strong advocates for the responsible use of health data for public good research. There is huge potential for securely linking health data to other public sector data such as education, housing, or employment data to support research on the wider determinants of health. We must do this in a trustworthy way, and allow researchers to analyse at scale the influence people’s social and environmental characteristics have on their health.”
Administrative data is information created when people interact with public services, such as schools, the NHS, the courts or the benefits system, and collated by government. Since the programme was formed in 2018, ADR UK has made significant advances in working with government departments and academics to make de-identified administrative data available for research for the public good.
There is now an impressive collection of ADR UK flagship datasets that accredited researchers can apply to access securely through our network of trusted research environments. ADR UK flagship datasets are of significant research value, and we anticipate will have wide appeal to researchers. This is integral to our mission to enable research that has the potential to lead to better informed policy decisions and more effective public services.
In order to support more researchers to understand, access, and use administrative data, ADR UK is also investing in a suite of training and capacity building resources which will be updated regularly on the ADR UK Learning Hub.
To see the full list of administrative datasets available across the partnership, visit the ADR UK Data Catalogue.
To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on X (formerly Twitter) or on LinkedIn.
