Innovative synthetic data work celebrated with ADR UK award win

The award highlights the work of Emily Oliver of ADR UK with Sophie McCall and Ryan Bremner from Research Data Scotland. This was part of a wider collaboration with ADR UK Synthetic Data Working Group and the DARE UK Synthetic Data Working Group. It also built on previous published work ‘Four Checks for Low Fidelity Data’ co-authored by Gillian Raab of the University of Edinburgh, Liam Cavin at National Records of Scotland, and Sophie McCall at RDS.

The project developed proposed guidance for synthetic data provision in the UK, outlined in the paper ‘Considerations for the provision of synthetic forms of secure data: An ADR UK Synthetic Data Working Group guidance paper’. This guidance is being used to shape and form discussions with the ICO and the creation of a governance framework.

The guidance is structured around a ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ model, providing a practical tool to support data owners to move towards routine production of synthetic data for flagship datasets.

From this framework, RDS have developed a policy for synthetic data generation and provision — an invaluable resource which has helped to shape our next phase of synthetic data generation for researchers.

Commenting on the award, Chief Data Officer, Kate O’Sullivan said:” I'm delighted that Scotland’s work on synthetic data has been recognised with this ADR UK award. It reflects the innovation, collaboration and commitment of colleagues across the research and data community who are helping to develop trusted approaches to data access that deliver public benefit.”

For more information on the ADR Scotland programme and Research Data Scotland’s role in it, see our ADR Scotland work and impact page.