About ADR UK

ADR UK (Administrative Data Research 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 datasets, 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. For more information on our datasets available for research, see our Flagship Datasets brochure.

Our partnership

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), which ensures data provided by UK Government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders 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 Scotland ADR Wales ADR Northern Ireland ONS ADR England

Our values

ADR UK is committed to a set of values that are central to the partnership’s activities and progress, guiding how we work together with our partners and defining how we engage with stakeholders and with the public. Our core values are:

Responsible and ethical data use

ADR UK is dedicated to ensuring the data we enable access to is used ethically and responsibly for research projects with real potential to make a positive difference to society. Data is de-identified and acces to it strictly controlled and monitored, with projects continually assessed for ethics, feasibility, privacy, public benefit and scientific merit.

Relevance

ADR UK is committed to ensuring that the research we enable is relevant to the needs of society. We do this by aligning our research themes with the UK's most pressing issues and by closely reviewing all project proposals to ensure they hold potential for public good.

Independence

ADR UK is an apolitical body and remains committed to impartiality and non-partisanship. The academic research that we will facilitate will be driven by a desire to understand and improve society rather than advance specific agendas.

Ambition

ADR UK is ambitious about the game-changing societal impact that can be achieved by well-implemented administrative data research, and has a vision for a future where safe data sharing for such research is normal and valued. We are willing to work hard to bring the public, policy makers and researchers alike with us on a journey to achieve this vision.

Funding

ADR UK is an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) investment initially from July 2018 to March 2022. In September 2020, £15.3 million of funding was approved approved by UKRI, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury for the 2021/22 financial year, to cover the first year of a five-year long-term investment. In September 2021, the remaining £90.12 million of funding was secured from UK Government to continue to grow the programme for a further four years, until March 2026.

The Strategic Hub manages a dedicated fund for commissioning research using newly linked administrative data. A complete list of projects awarded grants from the ADR UK Strategic Hub Fund, for which a grant agreement has been finalised and signed, can be found on the Publications page.

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