Aligning and speeding up Scotland’s research data services: our plans for 2026

A fresh January has rolled around again and, like many others, I find it a great time to reflect on what was achieved over the past year, and well as looking ahead to what 2026 may bring.   

Working in partnership  

Partnership work is key to what we do at Research Data Scotland, with organisations from across the sector coming together to enable faster and simpler access to public sector data.  It was once again a real pleasure to work with our partners both here in Scotland and across the UK over the course of last year, whether that’s making more datasets available for research through the Administrative Data Research Scotland (ADR) programme, the great work taking place across the Scottish Safe Haven Network, or helping to move things forward on UK federation through the Connect 4 project.  

We’re lucky to have a real wealth of knowledge and good relationships across our partner organisations, and this only strengthened throughout 2025. We need to continue to put that to work for researchers. So, one of my aims for RDS this year is to both align policies and approaches across Scotland – ideally further – and to describe Scotland’s data services in a way that is easy for researchers to understand and engage with. 

A key part of this will be working with the Scottish Safe Havens towards a consolidated entry point for research data in Scotland, providing a trusted place to understand the range of available data and route to access it.  

Making more data available  

The Research Access Service (RAS) is delivering faster data access, proving that the model works. We reached some significant milestones towards the end of last year, with the introduction of the Public Impact Advisory Group, governance alignment with the UK Statistics Authority through the development of RAS approvals panel. These have helped to create an even more robust foundation which now allows us to expand this service with confidence.  

In particular this year we will be working with Public Health Scotland to enable more research to come through the RAS. Of course, we will continue to drive down the time to data access by further streamlining processes and providing new clarity to guidance and support for researchers. An important part of this will be working with the Scottish Government Data for Research Change Management Board to explore ways to bring further efficiencies to the way our public sector data assets are accessed and used. 

Interest in depositing data into RAS is growing, and we’ll be working closely with public bodies and other data owners over the course of this year to expand the range of high-value datasets currently available.  

As well as expanding our range of data, it’s also important that we thoughtfully expand who can safely access this data for research in the public good.  

Making services available to more researchers 

We know that many of the treatments available through the NHS stemmed from collaborations between NHS, academia and industry. As more healthcare innovation becomes data driven, it is vital that our data services support this collaborative approach. Without it, we lose opportunities for innovation and improved services for the Scottish people.  

On behalf of the Scottish Government, RDS have engaged with industry, data controllers and members of the public to create the conditions that mean that industry-led research can be data driven. From this, we have created and are currently engaging with key communities on an operational framework which lays out the arrangements for industry data access. Linked to this work, we will also be running a competition for Scottish small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to innovate with health data, as featured in the recent Scottish Life Science Strategy.  

There are many opportunities still to be taken to ensure we’re making the most of Scotland’s excellent public sector data. By safely expanding the available datasets, and the types of researchers who may wish to access these datasets, we create an environment where data research that benefits citizens can flourish.  

Making data work harder for Scotland  

We recently laid out different opportunities that linked data research presents for Scotland in our cross-party statement. Some of the most pressing challenges our society faces today – from child poverty to climate change, growing our economy to improving our public services – require data from different sources to be linked together. With a Holyrood election set for May 2026, it will be important to ensure the new Scottish Government and wider Parliament are able to make the most of these opportunities.