Vol. 10 No. 4 (2025): Conference Proceedings for ADR UK Conference 2025 | International Journal of Population Data Science

Administrative Data Research Wales is honoured to be hosting this year’s conference, building on past conferences held over recent years. Although a small nation, Wales has been at the forefront of efforts to make health and administrative data safely available for research for many decades, building trustworthiness with the public in how this is done at every stage. Based on our experience in providing secure access to a range of linkable health datasets, we have now significantly expanded our data holdings to include Census data plus a wide range of social and economic survey data, along with a suite of datasets related to crime and justice, including policing and courts data. This has all been possible through the success of the ADR UK programme. With investment into our data infrastructure and new partnerships with a range of data owners, there are a wealth of new opportunities opening up for research for public benefit. This is a rapidly developing field of population data science, defined briefly as ‘the science of data about people.’

The increasing availability of government data for research is an important trend enabling population data science to penetrate deeper than ever before into social and economic issues. The use of administrative data and the ability to link records at an individual level to produce empirically based insights, and protecting privacy, serves to effect positive change through evidence-based policy making. Doing this in ways that embed meaningful public engagement throughout means this is a sustainable and ever-expanding field of research.

It is worth reflecting that access to administrative data does not come about without public investment and concerted effort and co-ordination between data owners, Trusted Research Service staff, researchers and our experts by experience. No single organisation has the capability, capacity, or incentive to undertake all the activities required to release administrative data, process it into research ready datasets, maintain ongoing records and undertake research. Instead, this happens through partnerships and collaborations, with everyone working together to make this happen securely and safely, for the public good.

The theme of the 2025 ADR UK Conference is “From records to research: Harnessing administrative data to enhance lives”, and the programme is packed with a broad range of workshops, oral presentations, expert panel sessions and posters. Throughout the conference, you will be hearing from a diverse range of researchers and, across an ever-increasing range of scientific disciplines. You will also hear from methodologists, those working in Trusted Research Environments, public engagement professionals and experts by experience, whose vital work underpins the research that we are facilitating.

We look forward to the discussions, ideas, and collaborations that will emerge from this conference.

Dr Emma Gordon
Chair, 2025 ADR UK Scientific Committee; Director, ADR UK at ESRC

Professor David Ford
Co-Director, ADR Wales; Professor of Informatics, Swansea University

Stephanie Howarth
Co-Director, ADR Wales; Chief Statistician, Welsh Government