Introducing the Researcher Access Service

In collaboration with the Public Health Scotland electronic Data Research and Innovation Service (eDRIS), Research Data Scotland has launched the Researcher Access Service. This is a digital service that will support accredited researchers in academia and government to securely access administrative data for research. Research Data Scotland was created and is funded by the Scottish Government, part of ADR Scotland.

Scotland’s administrative data has historically been stored separately in individual systems across different organisations, which creates a time barrier for accessing the data to answer important research questions. This impedes public good research to inform better, evidence-based policy that benefits the population.

The Researcher Access Service poses a solution by enabling more streamlined access to administrative datasets held in Scotland’s National Safe Haven – a trusted research environment which securely stores some of Scotland’s most useful datasets for research. This means researchers can generate more timely insights, while policymakers can access high-quality research evidence.

Who can access the service?

Accredited researchers from approved organisations, such as the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research (SCADR), can apply to use one or more of nine administrative datasets. Further datasets may be added, covering more themes.

The service is the first fully digital platform for requesting access to datasets in the Scottish National Safe Haven. Researchers can submit and track their application in an online portal.

To see the full story and learn more about how to use the service, Visit the SCADR website.