Finn Dymond-Green, Director of Impact, reviews a year that included the 10th anniversary of the Data Impact blog, a fifth cohort of Data Impact Fellows and new impact colleagues.
2025 has been a fascinating year in our continuing work to evidence and promote the impact of data in our collection as well as the UK Data Service as infrastructure.
The UK Data Service sits in a unique position to see the use of data through from producers through data-enhanced research through to impact. We never forget that this impact is about decisions, policies and practices directly affecting people’s lives.
The data the UK Data Service makes available tells a story far beyond access to it. It supports charities shaping strategies to reduce poverty, public bodies addressing health inequalities, researchers influencing national policy debate and communities seeking evidence to make their voices heard.
It shines a light on inequality, informs decisions and action, and contributes to a fairer society.
I invite you to join me in a reflection on the power and value of social, economic and population data, and the infrastructure which makes it readily available.
Data Impact blog at 10
It’s been a bumper year for the Data Impact blog as we mark 10 years of contributing to encourage discussion and debate around data impact, sharing innovation and keeping the social science data community up to date with data-driven impactful research and policy making.
During the year, we’ve published more posts than any previous year, with more than sixty blog post on a huge range of topics appearing. We’re pleased to know they are reaching a large and varied audience, with over 30,000 different people having read the Data Impact blog in 2025.
There have been many highlights for me this year.
Reducing inequality
Trussell – an anti-poverty charity and community of food banks – took a deep dive into how data can drive change in understanding and alleviating hunger and hardship in the UK. We were also able to share news of a brand-new dataset Food and You 2, which includes data on food bank use as well as food safety practices.
The chief executive of 360Giving explored power dynamics and inequity in data, while the Royal British Legion discussed how high-quality data can make meaningful change for the Armed Forces community.
Health inequalities continue to be uncovered by data-enhanced research, including health inequalities in young people and the impact of cancer on income levels. Others’ income levels can be affected by the Universal Credit policy changes.
Resolve Poverty discussed how poverty could be better tackled if the UK government were to devolve access to social security data to local and regional government.
The value of data infrastructure
2025 saw the UK Data Service reach a significant milestone: 10,000 data collections are now available through our platforms. We took the opportunity to explore the nearly sixty years of activity for the Service and its forebears which led to this point.
Deputy Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Alison Park, discussed the importance of UK social science data infrastructures and outlined some of the opportunities and challenges they face.
The UK Data Service Deputy Director, Debora Price, complemented this message with her reflections on the critical importance of data preservation, recent international threats to data infrastructure, and why we must protect trusted data services as essential public institutions.
Earlier in the year, the UK Data Service Director, Steve McEachern contributed his own thoughts about what UKDS will be playing in the future. More recently, Camilla Philpot-Thomsen, Associate Director for Data Operations, reflected on her own first year with the Service.
New colleagues have joined the impact team this year – Eve Little and Sophie Gawryla. They’ve already learnt a lot about impact and made a huge contribution. Amongst it all, they took some time to share their thoughts on the voices in and behind the data.
Looking to the future
In late 2025, the ESRC launched its Future Data Services report. Richard Welpton discussed the evolving nature of data services and the role of the ESRC’s Future Data Services initiative in meeting the growing needs of researchers. The UK Data Service looks forward to working with the ESRC to build this future.
We were delighted to hear during the year that the 2031 UK censuses will continue in a similar format to 2021. Other surveys face different challenges – Oyinlola Oyebode presented a personal view on the importance of the Health Survey for England as its future direction is evaluated.
A positive future direction is the development of synthetic data. Jools Kasmire and Cristina Magder produced a great introduction to what it is and how it’s used, while we also published an example of its use to evaluate the impacts of a changing climate and the interventions put in place to mitigate them.
These posts are just a few of my favourites, but I do encourage you to read any you’ve missed as you munch on your mince pies!
Data Impact Fellows
It’s been a delight to welcome our fifth cohort of Data Impact Fellows this year. This scheme has been supporting Early Careers Researchers since 2017 to develop new approaches to impact. Our Current Fellows are:
- Anastasia Fadeeva – a Research Fellow in Health Sciences at the Violence and Society Centre, at City St George’s University of London, who works for the Violence, Health and Society (VISION) research consortium.
- Kyle Genner – an Associate Lecturer and Social Science Researcher at Teesside University.
- Michaela Pawley – a PhD student at the Sleep and Pain Lab, University of Warwick
- Roxana Pollack – undertaking an MRC funded PhD in social epidemiology at the School of Health and Wellbeingin the University of Glasgow.
- Alice Varley – a PhD student in the Geographic Data Science Lab at the University of Liverpool, as part of the ESRC-funded Data Analytics and Society CDT.
We met in person at the start of the year and have met with our Fellows several times online since. We look forward to how their ideas about impact continue to develop.
Anastasia published her most recent blog post last week and you’ll get the chance to meet our Fellows at the Early Career Researcher event in February (more on that below).
Case studies
We have published three new case studies this year:
Our first ever case study focusing on the impact of a new dataset, Food and You 2, official statistics commissioned by the UK’s Food Standard Agency.
The Gender Equality Index UK: what does gender equality look like in the UK today?
The UK has had no comprehensive measure of gender equality. Using Understanding Society data accessed from the UK Data Service, the Gender Equality Index UK (GEIUK) systematically measures and analyses the socioeconomic outcomes of women and men across all 372 local authorities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. By combining data across key domains, the GEIUK provides a detailed picture of what gender equality looks like today – and where targeted action is most needed.
Using several datasets in the UK Data service collection, including Understanding Society, the British Social Attitudes Survey and the National Survey for Wales, the researchers created an up-to-date, comprehensive framework to classify and interpret the diverse survey questions used to measure climate-related attitudes. The impact of this work is already well underway, with the framework underpinning key modules in the cross-national CRONOS-3 panel.
Looking to 2026
In February, we will be facilitating Perspectives on Engagement and Impact, in association with policy engagement specialists from CLOSER.
This free event for Early Career Researchers will be an interactive day including both a policy building workshop and ‘speed dating’ with stakeholders from charities, the NHS, and beyond.
No lengthy keynotes either – we will have lightning talks – big ideas in short bursts, short insightful talks from decision-makers, academics, and voluntary-sector leaders.
It’s a day that’s guaranteed to fill you with ideas to take away to develop your own engagement and impact, while also connecting with others.
2026 will be a time where we continue to innovate in the field of evidencing and promoting impact. As our new ideas emerge, we encourage to read them first here on the Data Impact blog.
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