NEWS - ADR UK is a beneficial investment: returning significant value to both government and academic researchers

Introduction

With ADR UK in the second half of its current investment period 2021-26,  ESRC commissioned an independent mid-term economic evaluation of the ADR UK programme. 

Oxford Insights and Lateral Economics conducted this mid-term evaluation with support from the Open Data Institute. It provides an assessment of ADR UK’s progress to date, as well as recommendations for getting further value out of the remainder of this investment period and tracking future progress. The recommendations are already being acted upon by ADR UK, and being integrated into their full business case for 2026-31.  

The findings of this evaluation show that ADR UK is on track to reach its intended goals by 2026, and also provides a strong case for reinvestment.

Summary of evaluation report

The report states that, from the evidence available to date, the cost savings made by the partnership together with ADR UK’s projected wider social-economic impacts, reveal that ADR UK’s benefits significantly outweigh costs.

Nicholas Gruen of Lateral Economics said:

Governments sit on mountains of administrative data that can help us improve services by understanding what works best. But getting that data into its most useable form is hard work. Datasets must be painstakingly linked while privacy is protected​​. But we’re now seeing past investment in this is bearing fruit. Our analysis shows that for every £1 invested the UK saw £5 of benefits.

Beyond the economic value of ADR UK, qualitative insights from the stakeholders engaged across government and academia confirm that ADR UK (with its 4 regional hubs such as ADR Scotland) is broadly on track to meet its intended goals.

Summary of findings

• Overall, the evaluation found that ADR UK is a beneficial investment which is returning significant value to both government and academic researchers
• In terms of return on investment, we conservatively estimate that the partnership has a partial benefit-cost ratio of 5.05 to date
• The partnership is performing significantly better than its previous iteration (ADRN), particularly when it comes to the sustainability of outcomes
• Researcher experience remains one of the partnerships’ main challenges, particularly when it comes to the timeliness of data availability
• Research is beginning to inform policy, but more can be done to ensure academic insights transfer to policymakers and any impacts are tracked
• There are changes ADR UK can make to its MEL processes which will make it easier to evidence the partnership's value in 2026
• Looking forward, ADR UK will need to navigate a changing data-sharing landscape, which comes with some new challenges but, more importantly, sizable opportunities

At ADR Scotland, with both Scottish Government and SCADR working together successfully in partnership, we have contributed to many of the improvements the report highlighted.

Additionally, by collaborating with our delivery bodies, RDS, EPCC, NRS and PHS we are making good progress with our future plans to find ways to simplify the researcher journey, balancing this need with the need to retain strict security requirements. 

Recommendations

• Where the programme has succeeded in making data available, ADR UK’s focus should shift from “getting the data in” to “getting the data used”
• The partnership should also clearly define who holds the responsibility for tracking policy impact and explore ways of tracking this impact more efficiently (e.g. through Overton.io)
• ADR UK should lead the way on helping TREs to identify and remediate bottlenecks in terms of getting access to data, for example through focussed service design work
• There is also an opportunity to promote even further collaboration across the four nations, especially when it comes to sharing expertise around providing efficient data access
• ADR UK should focus specifically on ‘unlocking’ HMRC and DWP data, which has been identified as a priority by academics and civil servants alike
• In a changing political landscape, with new data-sharing initiatives potentially emerging, ADR UK should restate its value
• ADR UK should also drive for further mandates in terms of how departments engage with administrative data sharing for research.

A strong case for reinvestment 

ADR UK is in the second half of its current investment period 2021-26 and will be making the case for re-investment to UK Research and Innovation and DSIT next year (2025). The findings of this evaluation provide a strong case for that reinvestment. The recommendations are already being acted upon, and being integrated into the full business case for 2026-31.  

Dr Emma Gordon, Director or ADR UK said: 

ADR UK’s strength lies in its partnership model, and how we collaborate with government data owners to open up research access to data. This evaluation provides evidence that our model works and is scalable, providing a very good return on investment. Each of our partners is integral to the success detailed in this evaluation. In our next business case, we will build upon these strengths to outline how we will continue to smooth the researcher journey to accessing population-level linked data.

Please read the summary report here.

The full report can be viewed on the UKRI webpage here.

This article was created from the news article originally published by ADR UK - read full article here.