Host organisations

These host organisations provide the foundation for our data, resources and services.

UK Data Archive, University of Essex

Lead partner of the UK Data Service, the UK Data Archive is curator of the largest collection of digital social science data in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1967, the Archive is an acknowledged centre of expertise in the areas of acquiring, curating and providing access to data. In 2010 it became the first academic department in a UK university to earn ISO27001 certification, an international standard of information security. And in 2020 was accredited to continue to provide controlled access to secure research data, under the Digital Economy Act 2017. In 2020 it also gained international certification from CoreTrustSeal as a trusted digital repository.

Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research, University of Manchester

The Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMI) is a centre of research excellence specialising in the application of advanced quantitative methods in an interdisciplinary social science context. Named after Cathie Marsh who founded the Census Microdata Unit in 1993, CMI still plays a key role in the support and development of UK secondary microdata including the Sample of Anonymised Records (SARs) from the Census.

Jisc, UK

Jisc is a registered charity and champions the use of digital technologies in UK education and research. As part of the Digital Resources Directorate of Jisc, UK Data Service staff provide access to, and specialist support for, the databanks of Inter-governmental organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and OECD as well as aggregate statistics from the 1971 to 2011 UK censuses.

EDINA, University of Edinburgh

EDINA is a national academic data centre operating since 1995. It is designated by Jisc to support the activities of universities, colleges and research institutes across the UK and has a mission to develop and deliver shared services and infrastructure for research and education that are innovative, high quality and cost-effective, based on knowledge and expertise gained through research and development. EDINA also continues to act as the ESRC specialist geography unit for the census, supporting UK Data Service users in accessing and using the geography outputs of the 2011 and previous censuses.

Department of Information Studies, University College London

The UCL Department of Information Studies is an international centre for knowledge creation and transfer in the fields of librarianship, archives and records management, publishing, information science and digital humanities. The department brings together academics and practitioners in these fields, with research aiming to develop the understanding and insights needed to shape the emerging information environment, while elucidating and building on the historical developments that have created this environment.

Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London

The UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) is one of the leading forces in the science of cities, generating new knowledge and insights for use in city planning, policy and design and drawing on the latest geospatial methods and ideas in computer-based visualisation and modelling. CASA is part of The Bartlett, UCL’s global faculty of the built environment.