Service catalogue

This is a collaborative network of leading social and biomedical longitudinal population studies. It has developed a range of resources for researchers seeking to discover and access these studies, as well as for participant communities, to facilitate sharing valuable information both to and from them.

Explore

• CLOSER Discover
• CLOSER Training
• CLOSER Mobilise
• CLOSER Learning
• CLOSER Compare
• CLOSER Society

This is the UK’s national Trusted Research Environment (TRE) for longitudinal research, linking data from a partnership including many of the country’s leading studies to create a rich resource for researchers. UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC) has an interdisciplinary and pan-UK remit: with agreements in place to link participants NHS records, HM Revenue & Customs, Department for Work and Pensions and environmental, neighbourhood and property data.

UK LLC supports any research in the public good, across the health and social sciences. UK LLC partnership of 24 UK studies has established its own Trusted Research Environment (TRE) with a governance framework suited to consented longitudinal research.

The TRE is hosted on the SeRP infrastructure at Swansea University, UK LLC provides access to linked data from over 24 LPS studies and 320,000 participants through a structured approval process. It also offers study support on governance, ethics and legal issues relating to data linkage.

Explore

• UK LLC
• UK LLC guidebook
• Apply for data access

It’s a UK-wide partnership transforming the wealth of public sector data into research assets and policy-relevant insights. By linking together data held by different parts of government, and facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up and de-identified datasets, Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how society and economy function – tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions.  

Explore

• ADR UK

This project systematically catalogues and shares information about longitudinal datasets from across the globe. The platform allows researchers, governments, funders, and the public to access over 1,600 datasets through a dedicated search engine.

Explore

• Atlas

A research consortium to build national capability for behavioural research. Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) conducts interdisciplinary behavioural research to contribute to addressing societal challenges.

Explore

• BR-UK

A digital research infrastructure to deliver a step change in ‘Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable’ (FAIR) research data management, providing end-to-end FAIR research data management & analysis capabilities along with the necessary support and training for UK researchers working in the life sciences.

Explore

• Bio-FAIR

This catalogue is an interactive resource featuring mental health and wellbeing measures from over 60 British cohort and longitudinal studies. Covering more than 20 topics, it provides detailed information on thousands of both standard and non-standard measures, including indicators of mental health issues, treatment, service use, impairment, and psychological wellbeing.

Explore

• Catalogue of Mental Health Measures

The CALLS-HUB is the primary platform for UK census-based longitudinal studies, including the ONS Longitudinal Study, Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study, and Scottish Longitudinal Study, along with their support units: CeLSIUS, NILS-RSU, and SLS-DSU. The hub offers essential resources, study guides, and tools to help users access and utilise data, while promoting the research support units’ work and impact.

Explore

• CALLS-HUB

As part of the UCL Social Research Institute, the Centre for Longitudinal Studies (CLS) houses a distinctive series of UK national cohort studies. It offers comprehensive resources for data discovery, access, and training, while also conducting its own research to generate policy evidence aimed at improving lives.

The CLS website provides access to study documentation, publications, and research findings, along with links to explore constituent studies through services like the UK Data Service and CLOSER.

Explore

• CLS

A national platform to satisfy the computational needs in support of data analysis, infrastructure research, and strategic thinking for the UK’s long-term planning and investment needs. The Data and Analytics Facility for National Infrastructure (DAFNI) supports academic research that aims to provide the UK with a world leading infrastructure system that is more: efficient, reliable, resilient and affordable. 

Explore

• DAFNI

This is a programme that aims to establish a safe and collaborative network of Trusted Research Environments (TREs) where approved researchers can efficiently access and analyse sensitive data to advance research for public benefit. By co-creating this network with relevant communities and the public, Data and Analytics Research Environments UK (DARE UK) aims to enhance research while maintaining the security and confidentiality of sensitive data.

Explore

• DARE UK

This is a collaboration of 27 public, industry, and third-sector organisations, funded by the Medical Research Council. Based at Oxford University, Dementias Platforms UK (DPUK) unites expertise from universities, charities, and the pharmaceutical and technology sectors to drive breakthroughs in dementia and neuroscience research.

DPUK operates its own Trusted Research Environment (TRE) and Data Portal, hosted by SeRP at Swansea University, providing free access to data from over 3 million individuals.

Researchers can use advanced metadata tools to identify relevant cohorts, apply for access, and analyse multi-modal data in a secure, remote environment, complete with analysis packages.

Explore

• DPUK Data Portal

This programme develops a digital hub and toolkits to exploit environmental and other data to create innovative digital services that deliver economic, societal and environmental benefits across the UK.

Explore

• DSH

This is a platform for the permanent archiving and sharing of genetically, phenotypically, and clinically identifiable data collected for biomedical research or research-focused healthcare systems. European Genome-Phenome Archive (EGA) allows studies to submit data for secure archiving, making it available for researchers through a structured access process. It also offers discovery tools and metadata services to enhance the findability and accessibility of data generated from consented studies.

Explore

• EGA

The Future Data Services (FDS) programme aims to stablish the needs of the social science community and the data services they work with and make recommendations which will help establish how best to invest in the next generation of data services.

Explore

• FDS

The gateway offers a platform for accessing global population survey data on aging, enabling cross-national and longitudinal research. It connects a network of 16 Health and Retirement Studies, providing dashboards and discovery tools to explore individual studies or harmonised data for direct comparison. The platform also features a Policy Explorer, offering insights into policies related to aging, along with publication lists and study updates.

Explore

• The Gateway
• Harmonised data
• Policy
• Publications

This is a tool designed for the retrospective harmonisation of questionnaire items across longitudinal population studies. It enables the comparison of questionnaire items across studies and is developing a discovery platform powered by a large language model that analyses existing metadata to facilitate data conversions.

Harmony integrates with UK LLC and leverages data sources such as the HDR Gateway, Catalogue of Mental Health Measures, CLOSER, and Administrative Data Research UK to enhance its models and populate the platform.

Explore

• Harmony

The Hartree Centre helps UK businesses and organisations of any size to explore and adopt supercomputing, data science and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for enhanced productivity, smarter innovation and economic growth.

Explore

• Hartree Centre

Managed by Health Data Research UK, the Health Data Research (HDR) Gateway is a data discovery platform that allows datasets to be easily discovered through various functions. It links general characteristics to data use registers and showcases real-world use cases.

The gateway enables studies to publish their metadata or contribute data through collections, especially when sharing data with broader infrastructures. It also serves as a resource for routine health and administrative records across the UK, which can be linked to existing studies to enhance cohorts and expand research opportunities.

Explore

• HDR Gateway

This is a national institute for health data that includes England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) was established to work with a wide range of health data from the NHS, universities, research institutes and charities, private companies and from wearable and mobile technologies.

Explore

• HDR UK

This project supports epidemiological research through data documentation, harmonisation, integration, and co-analysis. Its key offerings include methods, catalogues, and open-source software that enhance data discoverability. Maelstrom’s in-house metadata catalogue documents a wide range of epidemiological research networks, studies, variables, and harmonisation initiatives.

Maelstrom integrates data from numerous UK LPS and contributes to a global network of 440 individual research studies, providing valuable insights into study data harmonisation, particularly for addressing the diversity and complexity of cohort studies worldwide.

Explore

• Maelstrom Research

The centre offers training and resources at both core and advanced levels, covering a wide range of methods including quantitative, qualitative, digital, creative, visual, mixed, and multimodal approaches.

The National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM) provides comprehensive training for both learners and instructors, supporting the research community across social sciences and beyond. Their offerings include a variety of resources such as online tutorials, ePrints, books, collections, and trainer-specific materials, all accessible through their dedicated training platform and resource directory.

Explore

• NCRM
• NCRM training
• NCRM resources

This is a collaboration between the public, charity and private sectors to build the UK’s largest health research programme – bringing people together to develop new ways to prevent, detect and treat disease.

Explore

• Our Future Health

This is a national programme established to bring together companies, academics, innovators and government to understand the world better and help solve social and economic challenges. Smart Data Research UK (SDR UK) provides secure data access, being a trustworthy programme for the public and building capability for cutting-edge research.

Explore

• SDR UK

This is a comprehensive platform for discovering, accessing, and learning about the UK’s collection of economic, population, and social research data, supporting teaching, learning, research, and public benefit.

LPS can upload their data, metadata, and training materials to the UK Data Service (UKDS), making them available for download or access via the UKDS SecureLab.

The platform allows researchers to explore a catalogue of available datasets, with access granted based on data sensitivity and specific use cases. It also connects to the UKDS learning hub, offering relevant documentation to help users fully leverage the data hosted by the service.

Explore

• UKDS
• UKDS SecureLab
• UKDS learning hub
• UKDS training