The UK Data Service is leading a new project aimed at significantly enhancing the UK’s qualitative data infrastructure. The QUADRA‑AI project will achieve this by developing and deploying AI‑enabled tools, strengthening governance frameworks and building researcher capacity to improve the discovery, access and reuse of qualitative data.
The UK Data Service is well placed to lead this project as it forms the backbone of the UK’s current qualitative data infrastructure. The Service already hosts over 350 curated qualitative and mixed methods collections and over 1,750 self-curated qualitative and mixed methods collections.
Unlocking the power of qualitative data
Qualitative data provide crucial insights into social behaviour, context and lived experience. Yet key data resources remain under shared and underused due to challenges in discoverability, accessibility and digital infrastructure barriers. The new UKRI Research Data Policy also raises expectations for responsible data sharing, creating an immediate operational challenge.
The QUADRA‑AI project will address existing barriers by introducing appropriate technical infrastructure and best practice guidance and frameworks, alongside scalable, AI-supported solutions aligned with the Economic and Social Research Council’s priority gaps. This will deliver vital support for data producers and secondary researchers.
The project will also secure lasting public benefit by ensuring that data contributed by the public is safely, ethically and maximally reused to drive impactful social science research for the public good.
QUADRA‑AI
The QUADRA AI project will achieve these goals by taking the following steps. First, the project team will develop and implement AI-assisted tools for automated transcription, anonymisation and thematic coding, enabling more efficient and consistent processing of qualitative data while maintaining human oversight.
This human-in-the-loop tool will flag likely identifiers and guide reviewer attention, materially reducing disclosure risk and the manual burden. These tools will be applied to at least 200 datasets within the UK Data Service collection.
Second, the team will enhance metadata structures and develop AI-driven thematic search capabilities, allowing secondary researchers to discover qualitative data more effectively. This will be supported by a user‑friendly interface tailored to qualitative research needs.
Third, the project will establish a robust ethical governance framework for AI use in qualitative data, co‑designed with researchers and the public to ensure transparency, accountability and trust. This will include updated guidance, policies and training materials.
Fourth, the project team will work with a community of data owners and researchers to explore and define requirements for incorporating highly sensitive qualitative data into Trusted Research Environments (TREs), helping to future‑proof infrastructure for secure and innovative research.
Finally, the project will deliver an extensive engagement and capacity‑building programme, ensuring that data producers, researchers and infrastructure staff can effectively use the tools and services developed and that best practice is shared across the community.
Through these activities, QUADRA-AI will deliver a step-change in how qualitative data are curated, governed and reused at scale, shifting current practice from manual, fragmented processes to an integrated, AI-enabled national infrastructure.
By embedding responsible automation, strengthening metadata and discovery and preparing pathways for secure access to highly sensitive data within TREs, the project will directly address the UK’s emerging policy requirements and long-standing structural barriers to qualitative data reuse.