At ADR Scotland, we seek to enable collaboration across policy and research to deliver real world impact for the public good.
Knowledge exchange is vital to the ADR Scotland programme because it enables collaboration, continuous learning and innovation across all sectors. It helps ensure insights are shared, understood and applied to improve public outcomes. By bringing together expertise from academic researchers, data analysts, policymakers and service providers, ADR Scotland can ensure that administrative data is not only used rigorously, but also meaningfully—informing decisions that improve public services and outcomes.
By creating spaces for dialogue and collaboration, new ideas and approaches develop—helping ADR Scotland stay responsive to emerging opportunities and challenges, ultimately maximising data driven evidence that can inform policies for public benefit.
ADR Scotland supports knowledge exchange by attending conferences, hosting open days and events that bring together diverse audiences to share insights and best practice. Past events have included knowledge exchange on:
- The Scottish Child Payment - read our blog about this event
- Demonstrating the research potential of Scottish LEO: Nursing Graduate Pathways into Employment
- Beyond the Classroom: Strengthening Pupil Engagement, Attendance and Belonging through Alternative Education and Community Partnerships.
Sharing knowledge through communities of practice
We are also developing a number of communities of practice focused on specific research areas, datasets and themes. These self-sustaining groups bring together researchers, government colleagues, analysts and practitioners. They provide a collaborative space to share knowledge, build connections and develop new research and policy ideas. While these groups vary in their focus, structure and level of formality, they all support people working with administrative and linked data.
ADR UK supports a range of UK-wide communities, user groups and networks. These include funded communities, affiliated communities and independent groups across the administrative data landscape.
ADR Scotland is working with a range of stakeholders to support the development of affiliated communities in Scotland.
Affiliated status signals a shared commitment to advancing administrative data research in line with ADR UK’s strategic priorities. It does not imply ongoing financial support or endorsement of specific outputs.
Our approach is to support collaborative, inclusive and self-sustaining communities that bring together researchers, analysts, policymakers and practitioners to share knowledge, build capacity and encourage innovation.
ADR Scotland communities are being developed in phases, growing our community offering around priority datasets and research themes. We are pleased to launch our first community: the Nursing & Midwifery Population Data Research Community.
Nursing & Midwifery Population Data Research Community
This community of practice invites researchers and analysts working with nursing and midwifery data. It aims to act as a point of connection for information sharing, peer support and collaboration, while helping to strengthen the use of administrative data in this field.
