Welcome
I'm very pleased to be writing this as my first newsletter as Director of the UK Data Service. By way of introduction, I joined in August 2024 after 15 years working as Director of the Australian Data Archive in Canberra, Australia. It's very exciting now to be joining the UK Data Service, one of the pre-eminent social science data services in the world.
First, I’d like to wish you all Happy New Year. The next 12 months promise to be an exciting time for the UK Data Service and I’m delighted to be part of it.
To start with, we’ve launched the UK Data Service Dissertation Award for the 2024-25 academic year, with £300 available for each winner. Plus, we are thrilled to share news about the future plans of our latest cohort of Data Impact Fellows.
We have many upcoming events and conferences. In particular, our Crime Surveys User Conference on 5 March will be a great opportunity to hear about the latest developments in crime data from UK social surveys.
We’re also hosting our UK Census User Conference on 12-13 June in Manchester, which will bring together experts from across the UK to discuss new census data and research.
Finally, this year marks the 10th anniversary of our Data Impact blog. The blog has become a key resource over the last decade and we’ll be celebrating this impact across the year with a special series of blog posts.
I would like to thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy this edition of the newsletter.
Regards,
Steve McEachern,
Director, UK Data Service.
To get in touch please email: comms@ukdataservice.ac.uk. |
Search our data catalogue for further information about the datasets in our collection.
Users can also filter our online news stories to find the latest datasets and editions added to the data catalogue.
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This year marks the 10th anniversary of our Data Impact blog. When the blog was launched in 2015, our then Director of Impact, Dr Victoria Moody, hoped it would become a "hub for researchers, students, communities, policy-makers, government officials and anyone interested in maximising the impact of social, population and economic data in research and policy". A decade on, we are proud to say that the Data Impact blog very much continues to meet these aims. Throughout 2025, we will be looking back over the past 10 years of developments in data impact and data policy. Just as importantly, we will also be looking forward. In an age that promises new and exciting opportunities for the use of data, but at a time when data and facts are also being used in less than ideal ways, the Data Impact blog will continue to be a place where we can share ideas and innovation, discuss developments and ensure that the impact of data is kept firmly in the public eye. |
Save the dates
20 February
FAIRfest: Celebrating advancements of FAIR solutions in EOSCFAIR-IMPACT and FAIRCORE4EOSC partners are glad to invite the broad European research community to FAIRfest, a festival celebrating advancements of FAIR solutions in the European Open Science research landscape.
5 March
Crime Surveys User Conference 2025
Are you interested in research on crime? Do you want to know the latest developments in crime data from UK social surveys? This free conference, organised by the UK Data Service in collaboration with the Office for National Statistics and Home Office, will be held in London at Lift, Islington. 12 June
UK Census User Conference 2025The UK Census User Conference, organised by the UK Data Service, will take place in central Manchester and online on 12 – 13 June 2025. This free conference will provide users and data creators with an opportunity to meet and discuss developments in census research.
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We are pleased to announce the launch of the UK Data Service Dissertation Award for the 2024-25 academic year. Three winning entries will each receive a £300 voucher. The deadline is Wednesday 18 June.
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The Data Impact Fellows programme is designed to support the use of UK Data Service data and resources by new generations of researchers and analysts working in the academic sector and in UK registered charities.
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You are invited to submit proposals for presentations and posters for the UK Data Service UK Census User Conference, which will take place in central Manchester and online on 12-13 June 2025. The deadline for submissions is 2 February 2025.
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A new study available via the UK Data Service shows that most young people who were confirmed to have long COVID 3 months after a positive PCR test had recovered within 24 months.
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The latest version of the European Language Social Science Thesaurus (ELSST) is a broad-based, multilingual thesaurus, for the social sciences that helps facilitate access to data resources across Europe.
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Last year marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the University of Essex. We're proud to have featured as one of the university's "60 Stories" to mark the occasion.
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Upcoming training and events
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Morag Treanor and Patricio Troncoso have written a case study on their research examining the effects of poverty on children’s social, emotional and behavioural outcomes, and on maternal mental health.
The research uses data from Growing Up in Scotland (GUS), a nationally representative longitudinal study of around 5,000 children. It finds that poverty has detrimental effects on parental and child mental health, and that parental mental health and child mental health are closely linked.
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Data Impact blog highlights
We are always eager to hear from researchers on your experience of accessing data via the Service. Below are a few recent blog posts which show how research projects use our data to make a real-world impact.
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Media watch: The UK Data Service in the news
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from commonslibrary.parliament.uk - 17 October 2024 "The Department of Health and Social Care has described an informal/unpaid carer (PDF) as: “…someone who provides unpaid help to a friend or family member needing support, perhaps due to illness, older age, disability, a mental health condition or an addiction”, as long as they are not employed to do so." This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Family Resources Survey, 2021/22 Census |
from landlordzone.co.uk - 10 December 2024 "Tenants heading for retirement age are the fastest growing group privately renting in England, according to new figures." This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: English Housing Survey |
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from ifs.org.uk - 11 December 2024 "A report suggests targeted support in means-tested benefits could ease impacts of a higher state pension age on vulnerable groups." This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Family Resources Survey, Wealth and Assets Survey, English Longitudinal Study of Ageing |
from fullfact.org - 19 November 2024 "Full Fact looks at Labour’s manifesto pledge to increase confidence in the police." This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Crime Survey for England and Wales |
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We would like to know when you successfully publish research informed by data you have accessed via the Service. Contact our Impact Team if you are interested in contributing to a blog or submitting a case study. Also, when you cite the data correctly, that helps us to measure our impact, but if you let us know directly, we can investigate opportunities to further promote your research.
Help us to shape our user catalogue
We will be undertaking user testing on our catalogue in 2025. If this is something you would like to be involved in, please contact comms@ukdataservice.ac.uk.
Update to our newsletter system
To keep the personal data about your emails (which we hold inside this newsletter system) as secure as possible, we have moved our quarterly newsletter to Email Blaster. We decided to make this move so that data can be held within the UK, which will further enhance the security of the information you have shared with us. If you are happy for this move to take place, and you would still like to receive our newsletter, please do nothing. However, should you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, please use the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of this newsletter. For more information about how your data is held, see Email Blaster's Privacy Policy.
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UK Data Service, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park
Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ.
© Copyright 2025 University of Essex.
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