In the run up to the 2001 Census, the UK Data Service as we currently know it didn’t exist. Around 2002, the ESRC decided to renew their Census Programme, which incorporated both research and service – in other words, a network of UK universities that provided expert support and online access to census products.
It was little bit like what the UK Data Service turkey rcs data offers now, but less joined-up, with each university funded through a separate grant. and I took on the role and ran the ESRC census program for a decade from 2002 to 2012, when it became part of what is now the UK Data Service.
The Service has been continuing with that mission ever since, doing an extraordinary amount of work harmonising all the census data and producing something unified and usable.
My role in all of this has essentially been as an advocate for academic and research users.
For the past 20 years, I’ve worked closely with all the census agencies, continually reminding them about the things that our users need from the data – whether that’s a particular angle on geographies, being able to link data together, methods advice and quality assurance, or thinking about what access and use is going to look like, especially for students and researchers.