The UK’s social science data landscape faces challenges and opportunities in a time of change, says Alison Park, Deputy Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Through it all, the UK Data Service remains an important part of the UK’s data infrastructure.
Looking to the future
In a post launched today on the Data Impact blog, Professor Park outlines the ESRC’s focus on addressing upcoming challenges and opportunities. She discusses how the rapid growth in Trusted Research Environments (TREs), while providing security for sensitive datasets, has created a fragmented landscape that can be difficult for researchers to navigate. The ESRC’s forthcoming Future Data Services Review will offer recommendations to simplify this landscape.
Park recognises the potential of AI to develop data services, from curation to analysis. She notes there are numerous legal and ethical hurdles to navigate. The ESRC will soon unveil initiatives to support the research community and data infrastructures to move forward responsibly in this space.
The ESRC is very aware of what it can do to meet training needs when working with increasingly complex data. A new Research Skills Strategic Leadership Hub will launch in autumn 2025 as a first step in plans to ensure researcher’s data training needs are met.
The importance of the UK Data Service
While the data landscape is changing, Park recognises the value of the UK Data Service as one of the ESRC’s longest-standing data infrastructures. The UK Data Service provides support for data acquisition, discovery, access and use, and the data it makes available is relied upon by over 48,000 researchers to underpin impactful research.
“Our data infrastructures are less obviously visible than the physical telescopes, research vessels and labs relied upon by other research disciplines. But they are no less important in enabling access to high-quality data at scale, removing the need for costly project-specific data collection and generating impactful, often highly policy-relevant, research.”
Professor Alison Park, Deputy Executive Chair, ESRC
Read Alison’s full post on the Data Impact blog.