Harnessing analytical capability in the trusted research environment space: What do I need and what can I offer?

As part of this year’s 2024 Office for National Statistics (ONS) Research Capability conference, the ONS Integrated Data Service Analytical Insights and Impact team ran a participatory workshop on harnessing analytical capability. In this blog, Louise Corti, who leads this ONS team, shares some learnings from the workshop and how it reflected the conference theme of ‘Building Research Capability and Community’.

This workshop explored how and where researchers gain the ‘capability’ they need across their analytical careers, how they make time for this, and how they share and pass on this knowledge.

We opened the session by showcasing what educational and mentoring opportunities the Civil Service and ONS had to offer around analytical learning.  Eve Moore gave an engaging reflection on her own journey from graduating with a computer science degree to being part of the ONS Data Science Campus Graduate Programme. She also has a formal role within ONS as part of the Integrated Data Service, supporting analysts new to the data platform.  

Eve reflected: “The programme is teaching me the skills I need to feel confident in my day-to-day work and has also instilled in me the importance of continuous personal development. I realised that learning and working don’t have to be two entirely separate things. Mixing active learning into my work has been helpful for building confidence, especially for my technical research skills.

“I dedicate time each month to focus solely on the educational modules, which means I can step away from regular work and learn for the sake of learning. No grades, no big stakes, just a commitment to improving as I go, even if I’m still figuring out the whole “S” part of ONS”.

Where and what do we learn?

The workshop asked groups to consider their own continuous development journeys to ensure that their analytical skills, and that of any teams or departments they manage, stay fresh or allow them to become an expert.  The groups shared their own approaches and challenges, and the following themes emerged:

Professional development

Participants discussed the idea that there lots of ways to learn, and the amount of learning resources can be overwhelming!  Tips they shared included:

• Skills can be actively gained at all career stages, through structured courses and practical learning, community learning and moving sectors.
• There are differences in recognition of ‘capability’ across organisations and sectors. Officially defined learning pathways, such as the Civil Service ‘Government Social Researcher’ can be helpful.
• Less official learning routes can also be useful, including the UKRI UK Data Service ‘Data Skills Framework’.  

On-the-job learning

Participants highlighted the importance of making and protecting time to learn and develop, even when there does not seem to be time in a busy work week. They recommended:

• Making use of in-house learning
• Pairing up with teams with more advanced knowledge to help change older practices, for example writing code together
• Knowing who to consult for a good second opinion on your work
• Using gaps in your team as an opportunity to upskill yourself
• Exploring options around sponsorship for further study as part of your work.

Be brave and resourceful around learning

Discussions in the workshop explored the idea of trying new things and learning from failure. Participants recommended:

• Attending more non-mandatory courses

• Trying tutorials to support the use of particular data types/datasets to practice analysis
• Trying out AI tools to help with self-learning and understanding – within the confines of your organisational policy
• Participating in communities of practice where you have a passion. Examples of community resources highlighted were: Code First Girls; British Computer Society Lovelace Colloquium; Welsh Government Lunch and Learns; UCL R User group; ONS Coffee and coding sessions; and the cross-government Reproducible Pipelines network.

Communication, leadership and management skills

Participants expressed that the importance of good communication and leadership; in particular, researchers should:

• Use visualisations, infographics, dashboards, and clear messaging to create effective and credible research communication
• Seek training opportunities to learn how to communicate their results effectively
• Complement their own analytical skills development with leadership and management learning.

Sharing our expertise and knowledge

The groups also examined how analysts share (or don’t share) their own knowledge and expertise. They considered how this could be improved, especially within their own organisations.

Improve collaboration and knowledge sharing

Participants felt that there is still room to build a better culture of collaboration and sharing. Researchers should aim to collaborate with policymakers to help to better define a policy-relevant research question.

It was felt to be helpful for researchers to share their annotated code on GitHub, so others can consult it and ask questions. Researchers could also explore attending cross-organisation user groups or professional networks, and running their own workshops.

Improving sharing knowledge in your organisation

The groups felt that what are recognised as ‘core’ analytical skills can still be highly siloed within an organization. Researchers should aim to create space for proactive knowledge sharing in their own place of work, by making time and setting up a point of contact to help coordinate.

Researchers can also help their professional communities by signposting to useful resources and engaging in mentoring.

ADR UK is working to support knowledge sharing around the research use of administrative data. Examples include the communities build around ADR UK Research Fellowships and PhD studentships, thematic ADR UK Researcher Symposiums, the ADR UK Learning Hub, and documentation for ADR UK flagship datasets.

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