The UK Data Service is a national data service funded by the ESRC to provide research access to the UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population data including UK government-sponsored surveys, cross-national surveys, longitudinal studies, UK census data, international aggregate, business data, and qualitative data.
Designed to meet the data needs of researchers, students and teachers from all sectors, including academia, central and local government, charities and foundations, independent research centres, think tanks, business consultants and analysts, communities and the commercial sector, the UK Data Service provides access to high-quality social and economic data; support for policy-relevant research; guidance and training for the development of skills in data use, and the development of best practice in digital preservation and sharing.
Data users can browse collections online and register to analyse and download them. Open Data collections are available for anyone to use.
Key partners include JISC, the University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh and University College London (UCL). The lead partner is the UK Data Archive (https://service.re3data.org/repository/r3d100010215) based at the University of Essex, a Trusted Digital Repository (TDR) certified against the CoreTrustSeal (https://www.coretrustseal.org/) and certified against ISO27001 for Information Security (https://www.iso.org/standard/27001).
The UK Data Service replaces the earlier ESRC investments of the Economic and Social Data Service (ESDS), the Secure Data Service (SDS), the Survey Question Bank and elements of the ESRC Census Programme.