ESRC Society Today

For immediate release

A public debate, Free our Data?, is to be held in Manchester on 15 March at 6pm as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Festival of Social Science.

Would you share your personal health and lifestyle information if it helped researchers understand, say, the causes of the huge growth in diabetes in the UK?  Is it fair for the government to charge you to access data whose collection your taxes have already funded? 

These dilemmas and issues are the subject of this free debate hosted by the ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science. Central to the discussion is whether social researchers should have unlimited access to the data that the government collects about the UK and its citizens. The resulting research would greatly improve social policy, but does this progress outweigh concerns about privacy and costs. 

Participants will join experts from the media, academia and government to discuss whether government data should be made freely available: 

• If the government made its data about the UK and its citizens freely available, would our social and economic lives improve or suffer?
• Who should meet the costs of collecting and maintaining the data? Only those people who directly use the   information, or the wider public who may ultimately benefit from the resulting research.
• Making government data freely available such as NHS patient data or road traffic data raises issues about privacy and costs. Can these issues be addressed at the same time as reaping the benefits of a better evidence base for the UK's social and economic policies?

Chaired by Jim Hancock, former Political Editor for BBC North West, the debate will feature expert contributions from:

• Neil Ackroyd, Director of Data Collection and Management, Ordnance Survey
• Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, The Guardian
• Peter Elias, Professor of Labour Economy, University of Warwick and Strategic Advisor (Data Resources) to the ESRC 
• Duncan MacNiven, Registrar General for Scotland
• Jil Matheson, Director of Census, Demographic and Regional Statistics, Office for National Statistics

"Technological advances mean massive computing power can help social scientists accurately answer questions that have previously been only guessed at," explains Peter Halfpenny, the Executive Director of the ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science. "Big social and economic questions such as what is behind the huge growth in diabetes. By combining data about every Briton’s health, diet, lifestyle, genes, and environmental factors; researchers can pinpoint reasons for the new prevalence of this disease."

"Yet social scientists are held back from making such research breakthroughs. The researchers are developing the research skills, they have the computer power but they lack much of the data. Although a large amount of information is already collected by government about the UK and its people, it is not freely accessible to researchers." 

The debate, Free our Data?, will run from 6pm to 8pm on 15 March at the University of Manchester. The debate is open to all but entrance is by ticket only. Please apply for a ticket at http://www.ncess.ac.uk/events/register.shtml   

For further information contact:

• Gillian Sinclair, Programme Manager, ESRC National Centre for e-Social Science (Tel: 0161 275 1380, email: Gillian.Sinclair@ncess.ac.uk)
• ESRC Press Office:
• • Alexandra Saxon (Tel: 01793 413032, email: alexandra.saxon@esrc.ac.uk)
  • Annika Howard (Tel: 01793 413119, email: annika.howard@esrc.ac.uk)

Notes for editors:

1. Geographical, meteorological, statutory and census data, health statistics, transactional data and much more is captured by the government for its own use in the course of its routine activities. This wealth of public sector information could be used to good effect by others, such as publishers, educators and citizens. The data is particularly valuable to social researchers when they investigate social, economic, health and other issues as a basis for developing effective policies to deliver services to the UK population.
2. The event, Free our Data? is being run as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science and in conjunction with The Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign.
3. The ESRC’s National Centre for e-Social Science, based at the University of Manchester, investigates how the Grid can help social scientists in their research. The Grid is about bringing together massive amounts of computing power and information stored on separate computers and networks. The computer infrastructure can help social scientists research more complex problems and progress their work more quickly. More at http://www.ncess.ac.uk
4. The ESRC Festival of Social Science gives a fascinating insight into some of the country’s leading social science research and how it influences our social, economic and political lives - both now and in the future. From big ideas to the most detailed observations, social science affects us all everyday - at work, in school, when bringing up children, when we are ill, even when we retire. The Festival celebrates the social sciences with events across the UK from 9 to 18 March 2007. More at http://www.esrcfestival.ac.uk
5. The ESRC is the UK's largest funding agency for research and postgraduate training relating to social and economic issues. It provides independent, high quality, relevant research to business, the public sector and Government. The ESRC's planned total expenditure in 2006-07 is £169 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and research policy institutes. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk
6. ESRC Society Today offers free access to a broad range of social science research and presents it in a way that makes it easy to navigate and saves users valuable time. As well as bringing together all ESRC-funded research and key online resources such as the Social Science Information Gateway and the UK Data Archive, non-ESRC resources are included, for example the Office for National Statistics. The portal provides access to early findings and research summaries, as well as full texts and original datasets through integrated search facilities. More at http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk