IASSIST 2026 (the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology) will take place this year as a virtual conference between 2 June and 5 June, with many experts from the UK Data Service providing presentations throughout these few days.
The theme for this year focuses on Championing Data and will feature dynamic sessions, as well as collaborative discussions and community-driven activities, which will involve valuable expertise being shared to build connections and advance collective data-centred work.
Please find details on the UK Data Service experts who will provide talks at the event:
From policy to practice: Building a data management learning hub for diverse data types:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentations by Maureen Haaker; Cristina Magder; Hina Zahid; Liz Smy and Natalie Clubb.
2 June, 5pm – 5.50pm.
Building Census data literacy through open asynchronous training resources:
Building Census Data Literacy Through Open Asynchronous Training Resources
Presentation by Placide Abasabanye.
3 June, 3pm-4pm.
Meeting users where they are: Online drop-ins as a training resource for data users:
Meeting Users Where They Are: Online Drop-Ins As A Training Resource For Data Users
Presentation by Alle Bloom and Pierre Walthéry.
3 June, 3pm-4pm.
UK Data Service Moodle: A snapshot and what’s next:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Sarah King-Hele.
3 June, 3pm-4pm.
Supporting safe synthetic data release: UK Data Service workflows, standards and community practice:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Maureen Haaker; Jools Kasmire; Cristina Magder; Melissa A Ogwayo and Hina Zahid.
3 June, 3pm-4pm.
Building computational capacity among global data service staff: A focus group analysis to inform learning module design:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Sarwat Qureshi; Vanessa Higgins; Jennifer Buckley; Jools Kasmire.
4 June, 12pm-12.50pm
In 2026 the UK Data Service’s ReShare repository celebrates twelve years of helping researchers publish and preserve self-curated collections:
Ensuring Integrity In Self-Curated Collections: 12 Years of Reshare At The Uk Data Service
Presentation by Vlad Voina.
4 June, 5pm-6pm.
Assessing and strengthening the computational skills of UK Data Service staff:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Vanessa Higgins; Jools Kasmire; Jennifer Buckley and Sarwat Qureshi.
5 June, 6pm-7pm.
From open to controlled: A five safes data access spectrum at the UK Data Service:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Cristina Magder.
5 June, 6pm-7pm.
Testing a third party TRE infrastructure for federated access to sensitive data. The UK Data Service – Sane and Geis-Sane pilots:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Beate Lichtwardt; Deborah Wiltshire; Olivier Rouquette and Cristina Magder.
5 June, 6pm-7pm.
Regressions, observations, and figures, oh my! An exploration of UKDS SecureLab output requests:
IASSIST2026 – OpenConf Abstract Submission, Peer Review, and Event Management System
Presentation by Allison R. B. Tyler and James Rayner.
5 June, 6pm-7pm.
IASSIST 2026 will also feature ample semi-structured time, with attendee-selected themes for discussion and idea exchanges, as well as unstructured segments, with breakout opportunities to capture the interstitial moments at these events.
For more information on the conference, please keep a watch on the conference website, which will be updated as details fall into place.
Featured presentation: Ensuring Integrity In Self-Curated Collections: 12 Years of Reshare At The Uk Data Service, by Vlad Voina.
Vlad Voina states that datasets, metadata, and documentation are often prepared largely by depositors, often under tight timelines and with diverse disciplinary norms.
“While self-curation expands capacity and empowers communities, it does not remove the need for robust in-house assurance. As data professionals at the nexus of policy, technology, and research practice, we face a practical challenge: how do we safeguard integrity when curation is shared?
“This presentation reflects on how ReShare has grown since 2014 and what we have learned about maintaining trust at scale. We describe a hybrid integrity model: depositor-led preparation combined with structured, repository-led review and targeted interventions. Alongside standard technical controls (virus scanning, fixity, file and format review, and versioning), we outline our in-house integrity workflow for governance and risk: consent and confidentiality considerations, disclosure risk, intellectual property and licensing, access conditions, and documentation of decision-making.
“We also highlight “basic but high impact” metadata curation undertaken by repository staff to strengthen findability and reuse: normalising key fields, improving titles and descriptions, adding keywords and topic classifications, linking related outputs, and ensuring minimum documentation standards that align with FAIR principles. Using short case examples, we show common integrity pain points, unclear provenance, ambiguous licences, missing contextual files, and undocumented transformations, and how the repository review reduces downstream support burden while improving user confidence.”