The latest UK Data Service Annual Report is now available. This report covers the extraordinary two-year period between April 2020 and March 2022, and highlights our value and impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also details how we implemented recommendations made by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) since the 2020 Mid-Term Review.
A word from our funders, ESRC:
“Across the world, data played a critical role in understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath – on individuals, communities, institutions, businesses and the economy. This report shows how the UK Data Service enables the research community to gain a deeper understanding of these impacts.”
Professor Alison Park, Interim Executive Chair, ESRC, UKRI.
Supporting research during the pandemic
From our first release of COVID-19 data in spring 2020, we helped enable early research into the economic and social impacts of the pandemic. Our agile response allowed researchers to continue their work remotely at a time when lockdown restrictions presented a key obstacle to research.
In October 2020, we hosted an online COVID-19 data dive with researchers, policymakers, and charities to explore how the pandemic was affecting the lives of people across the UK. We have now curated an extensive collection of COVID-19 data that has been accessed by researchers both within the UK and beyond.
Continual rise in research use and impact
The two years covered by the report saw a significant rise in overall service use. We continue to explore new ways to make our data available to users and to broaden our outreach nationally and globally. Some of the highlights:
- Just under 48,000 registered users of the service from 148 different countries.
- Over 75% of UK Data Service collections were made accessible from home, permanently.
- Over 160,000 curated datasets were downloaded in this period.
- An 80% increase in data collections via self-deposit repository, ReShare, to support research and reproducibility.
- Controlled access to UKDS SecureLab rose by 22%.
- Data skills training attendance was at an all-time high, with over 12,000 delegates attending our online training and events – interactive skills modules and event videos were watched by over 6,000 viewers a month.
- Every six minutes data is accessed through the UK Data Service, 24 x 7 x 365.
- Impact case studies include the creation of new poverty measures for the UK by the Social Metrics Commission and the introduction of the National Living Wage (NLW) on employment retention and hours worked, by the Institute for Employment Studies (IES).
More information
- If you would like a printed version of the Annual Report or wish to comment, please email Andrea Munson through comms@ukdataservice.ac.uk
- Past Annual Reports