Interim evaluation of ADR UK: Summary report

This summary report presents an overview of the results of the midterm evaluation of ADR UK, conducted by Oxford Insights and Lateral Economics with support from the Open Data Institute. It provides an assessment of ADR UK’s progress to date, as well as recommendations for getting further value out of the remainder of this investment period and tracking future progress.

The evaluation employed a mixed methods approach, drawing on findings from interviews and surveys with stakeholders in government and academia, as well as bibliometric and economic analysis.

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Summary of findings

• Overall, the evaluation found that ADR UK is a beneficial investment which is returning significant value to both government and academic researchers
• In terms of return on investment, we conservatively estimate that the partnership has a partial benefit-cost ratio of 5.05 to date
• The partnership is performing significantly better than its previous iteration (ADRN), particularly when it comes to the sustainability of outcomes
• Researcher experience remains one of the partnerships’ main challenges, particularly when it comes to the timeliness of data availability
• Research is beginning to inform policy, but more can be done to ensure academic insights transfer to policymakers and any impacts are tracked
• There are changes ADR UK can make to its MEL processes which will make it easier to evidence the partnership's value in 2026
• Looking forward, ADR UK will need to navigate a changing data-sharing landscape, which comes with some new challenges but, more importantly, sizable opportunities

Recommendations

• Where the programme has succeeded in making data available, ADR UK’s focus should shift from “getting the data in” to “getting the data used”
• The partnership should also clearly define who holds the responsibility for tracking policy impact and explore ways of tracking this impact more efficiently (e.g. through Overton.io)
• ADR UK should lead the way on helping TREs to identify and remediate bottlenecks in terms of getting access to data, for example through focussed service design work
• There is also an opportunity to promote even further collaboration across the four nations, especially when it comes to sharing expertise around providing efficient data access
• ADR UK should focus specifically on ‘unlocking’ HMRC and DWP data, which has been identified as a priority by academics and civil servants alike
• In a changing political landscape, with new data-sharing initiatives potentially emerging, ADR UK should restate its value
• ADR UK should also drive for further mandates in terms of how departments engage with administrative data sharing for research.

You can read the full independent evaluation report on the UK Research and Innovation website.