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UK Data Services

UK Data Services

This page will provide information about UK data services available and explore how these services can help you with your research.

Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER)

CLOSER is an interdisciplinary partnership of leading social and biomedical longitudinal population studies, based at UCL Social Research Institute. CLOSER aims to maximise the use, value and impact of cohort and longitudinal studies by providing high quality resources and sharing expertise to develop and support international and national projects.

To find out more about CLOSER and explore the resources available to support your research, check out the CLOSER resource pack below.

CLOSER resource pack >

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NHS DigiTrials Service

NHS DigiTrials is a service aimed to help clinical trials progress more easily at every stage, using data that NHS England already collects from health and care organisations across England. NHS DigiTrials offers a service that will make the data for trial follow-up available for linkage to clinical trial data, in one place, meaning better understanding of longer term outcomes of new treatments, improving healthcare across the country.

NHS DigiTrials is a relatively new service (started in 2019) powered by NHS Digital to support clinical trials, with the ultimate aim of improving NHS services and access to evidence based diagnostics, vaccines and treatments to improve the health of patients. It was developed and supported by a diverse panel, representing the voice of patients and the public. Whilst NHS DigiTrials is a new service, it has already supported over 72 research studies, sent around 23.8 million invitations, and helped recruit over 1.2 million study participants.

NHS DigiTrials service resource pack >

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UK Data Service

UKDS is a service which hosts the largest trusted digital archive of economic, social and population data in the UK. It specialises in data curation, data literacy and actively managing long-term access to high quality data, transforming social science research, teaching and learning.

To find out more about UKDS, check out the resource pack below.

UKDS resource pack >

UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration

The UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC) is run by the Universities of Bristol and Edinburgh, in collaboration with UCL, SeRP UK, Swansea University and University of Leicester. Its core aim is to bring together de-identified study data from over 20 of the UK’s well-established longitudinal population studies and link it with participant’s official health and non-health data. Find out which UK longitudinal studies are taking part in the UK LLC project here.

The UK LLC’s mission is to provide a data linkage service to its partner longitudinal studies and to provide a simple one-application process to UK based researchers applying to access linked longitudinal data. UK LLC welcomes applications from any bona fide researcher based in the UK. All applicants must either have an ONS Accredited Researcher status or be enrolled on an ONS Safe Researcher Training course.

If you have a research question which would be best answered by using longitudinal cohort data with linkage to other health or administrative data sources, UK LLC will be a helpful partner in making those linkages available to you. Find out more about UK LLC and the data access request pathway in the resource pack below.

UK LLC resource pack >