Welcome
Welcome to our Winter newsletter.
I am pleased to report the UK Data Service has passed an important milestone: We now have over 10,000 data collections available. We are proud to be able to offer such a comprehensive resource to our users and thankful for the support we have received from the research community to make this possible.
We have also made a major update to our Data Catalogue. The new catalogue has improved performance and functionality, with enhanced search and better filtering. It has also been designed with user feedback at its core.
We hope the changes will make finding and working with data faster, as well as easier than ever before.
Looking to the months ahead, we are making our way through our introductory training series for autumn 2025. I would encourage you to take a look at the programme to learn more about how we can support your research.
We also have a packed schedule of other training and events taking place before the end of the year, as well as new training resources - including a fantastic new online learning module for the Family Resources Survey.
I would like to thank you all again for your continued support and I hope you enjoy this edition of the UK Data Service 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.
Additionally, you can follow us on Bluesky and LinkedIn to keep up-to-date on when the latest datasets are released.
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Listen to our new podcast with CLOSER, as we sit down with our expert panel to explore how research data can influence Government policies to improve people's lives.
Our panellists include: Steve McEachern, Director of the UK Data Service; Rob Davies, Head of Policy and Dialogue at CLOSER; Dr Emily Marchant, Lecturer at Swansea University and Natasha Mutebi, Social Sciences Lead at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology. Please also dig deeper into the work of CLOSER with our Impact team's blog about how the organisation provides specialist support for researchers: Grow your policy impact through CLOSER’s Policy Surgeries.
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Save the date
26 November
UK Data Service essentials: Introduction, and finding and accessing data
A practical overview of the UK Data Service including guidance on searching and accessing data.
9 December
Data in the spotlight: Census and population studies
Do you want to know more about the best resource for population studies in the UK? Do you want to understand how the UK census works and how to access the data within it?
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Central to the ESRC’s vision is ensuring researchers can easily discover, explore and use data efficiently and effectively – one of the key benefits of investing in infrastructures such as the UK Data Service.
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The UK Data Service has hit a historic new milestone, with the number of data collections we make available reaching the 10,000 mark.
Over the past six decades, the UK Data Service and its forerunners have supported research by simplifying findability and access to social, economic and population data.
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Our new UK Data Service Data Catalogue is now live, which has been designed with user feedback at its core, to make finding and working with data faster and easier.
The new catalogue has a modern feel, improved performance and new functionality, such as enhanced search and filtering facilities.
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We were delighted to attend the Royal Statistical Society’s International Conference in Edinburgh recently and award £300 to the winners of the poster competition. This year’s event had over 900 attendees from over 50 countries and featured some fascinating sessions on the latest developments across statistics and data science.
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We welcomed 159 attendees to the TRE Community Conference in Leeds, where we explored all aspects of Trusted Research Environments (TREs). These TREs enable secure access to sensitive and confidential data. Experts from the UK and beyond discussed building the next generation of research infrastructure for sensitive data.
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We are pleased to have launched a new, free-to-access data skills module to help researchers and analysts get the most from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The module was developed in collaboration with the Survey Branch at the Department for Work and Pensions and is available on our website.
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Forthcoming training sessions
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In her blog post, Professor Alison Park, the Deputy Executive Chair of the ESRC, discussed the importance of UK social science data infrastructures and outlines some of the opportunities and challenges they face
We have also showcased the interesting and impactful work of UK Data Service colleagues in a broad mix of blog posts over the past few months, to identify barriers to effective mental health treatment and gaps in service delivery:
· Guardians of the record: why data preservation matters now more than ever.
· Bringing census flow data to life with large language models.
· Not real – but really useful: synthetic data – a cost-benefit analysis of its practical value.
· Thinking creatively about the data skills gap: how online training events are supporting SHAPE Higher Education students.
· Matching the CURATE(D) standard: data curation at the UK Data Service.
· Boosting data interoperability through the new DotStat.
We have also published blog posts from a diverse range of researchers. Here’s a snapshot of some of these conversations about data:
· Past Data Impact Fellow Ben Brindle, from the University of Oxford’s Migration Observatory, explains how the new Hong Kong BN(O) Migrants Panel Survey will shed light on migrants’ integration into the UK economy and society.
· Oyinlola Oyebode presents a personal view on the importance of the Health Survey for England.
· Tom Pottrill, Policy Officer at Resolve Poverty, explains why devolved access to social security data is essential for local councils in tackling poverty.
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Perspectives on Engagement and Impact - an event for early career researchers
The Impact team has been hard at work preparing for the first standalone Early Career Researchers’ event hosted by the UK Data Service.
On 11 February 2026 we will be convening early career researchers who work with social, economic or population data for an event that highlights the essential role of engagement in achieving meaningful impact.
The event will explore practical strategies, challenges, and opportunities for creating change beyond academia through the lens of diverse stakeholders.
This event offers a valuable opportunity to deepen our collaboration with CLOSER, who will be leading a workshop inspired by their new policy surgeries initiative. You can read more about these surgeries in their recent blog post.
Keep an eye out for more information on Perspectives on Engagement and Impact on our website. |
Sophie Gawryla and Eve Little have each shared their personal top five posts from the Data Impact blog, offering fresh perspectives on the stories, voices, and themes that have shaped our impact work so far.
Their reflections not only celebrate the diversity of content we have published but also gives some insight into our plans for the future – with new formats, such as podcasts, an impact magazine, impact champions and case studies that spotlight the infrastructure behind the UK Data Service.
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Media watch: The UK Data Service in the news
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from manchestereveningnews.co.uk - 11 October 2025
"The most desirable neighbourhoods in Greater Manchester that will give you the 'best quality of life' have been revealed. Based primarily on UK Census data, the score considers factors such as home ownership, education, employment levels, and occupational class (NS-SEC)."
This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Census 2021/2022
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from bbc.co.uk - 19 September 2025 "Markets offering healthy food will be established in some of Glasgow's most deprived areas in an attempt to tackle food insecurity and obesity in the city. Last year's Scottish Health Survey, external found food insecurity - where people have limited access to healthy food - at the highest level since the survey began, while 27% of Glaswegians are classed as obese."This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Scottish Health Survey |
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from theguardian.com - 11 October 2025 "Perception of runaway crime partly blamed for ‘driving away the super-rich’ but in reality some high-profile offences such as watch theft are falling. Many crimes go unreported to the police, so the Crime Survey for England and Wales asks tens of thousands of households directly every year whether they have been the victim of a crime. The findings suggest crime has fallen dramatically over the past 20 years"This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Crime Survey for England and Wale |
from standard.co.uk - 9 September 2025 "Ulster University will play a role in tracking the lives of children in Northern Ireland as part of the landmark study. Northern Ireland last participated in a birth cohort study in 2001–02 with the Millennium Cohort Study.
This article references data which is available in the UK Data Service collection: Millennium Cohort Study |
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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.
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UK Data Service, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park
Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ.
© Copyright 2025 University of Essex.
Created by UK Data Archive, UK Data Service.
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