We’re excited to have received funding for a new project focused on identifying and helping to fill gaps in UK poverty data.
The work is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Insight Infrastructure programme, which aims to democratise access to high-quality data and evidence on UK poverty, through open collaboration and innovation.
The project, which we’re running in partnership with the Centre for Public Data, will have a particular emphasis on the impact current data gaps have on civil society organisations and the communities they serve, as well as how we can make better use of administrative data to support policymaking tackling UK poverty.
The project forms part of our Public Statistics campaign, which explores how we can capitalise on the increasing amount of data available and look beyond government needs to answer society’s most important questions.
Our key aims with the project are to support organisations to access data to meet their needs, raise awareness of existing data gaps and secure a government commitment to fill at least one major gap. We also hope the project will help foster stronger engagement between statistics producers and data users across the UK’s civil society sector. The project is scheduled to run for nine months, and we will provide regular updates on its progress.
RSS CEO Dr Sarah Cumbers, commenting on the news said, ‘We’re really pleased to have the importance of this work recognised as part of JRF’s Insight Infrastructure. Without the right data and evidence to inform policymaking, we will not be able to meaningfully tackle poverty in the UK. This project will provide a much-needed understanding of the current gaps and seek a commitment to fill at least one of them, so we can more effectively meet the needs of researchers and civil society groups.’