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Welcome to the first Secure Research Service (SRS) Updates for 2022. To start the year, we have a number of exciting updates and developments to share with you.
Upcoming developments
We are excited to announce the Secure Research Service Metadata Catalogue. This new interactive tool will enable you to discover what data are available for research in the SRS. The catalogue will provide a host of information on each SRS dataset, enabling you to assess if the dataset will meet your research needs, even before becoming an accredited researcher, or submitting a project application.
Details on how to access the Secure Research Service Metadata Catalogue will be made available very soon. We are delighted to share this with you.
Alongside the Secure Research Service Metadata Catalogue, we will be making developments to all SRS content on the ONS website, allowing you to navigate our processes and procedures in a more concise and accessible way. Additionally, these developments will be accompanied with greater guidance, enabling you to receive further support on desired topics such as Assured Organisational Connectivity.
Early next month, we will be launching our Annual User Experience Survey and providing you with a summary of the results from last year’s survey. Feedback from SRS users is vital to help us develop and shape the service we provide. As an important member of the researcher community, the survey is your chance to give us a view on key aspects of the SRS service.
Look out for communications next month detailing how to take part.
Security message
As an accredited researcher you play a critical role in maintaining the ongoing security of the SRS.
If your organisation has an Assured Organisational Connectivity (AOC) Remote Access Agreement in place, then this may allow you the permission to access your project from a home based office. If you have this ability, then you’ll know that accessing through your organisational VPN is an essential and critical part of protecting the SRS.
In the past, a small number of researchers, either accidentally or deliberately have accessed the SRS through their own personal home WiFi connection and not through their organisation’s agreed VPN.
We are aware that accidents happen and if you do find that you’ve accessed your own WiFi in the wrong way, then please be transparent and immediately email SRS.Connectivity@ONS.gov.uk with the times and the date that this occurred. Please note that sanctions are rarely applied if a genuine error has occurred and if we have been advised in advance of detection by our investigations team.
Thank you once again for your ongoing support for the security of the SRS.
New SDC guidance for researchers
Due to the small but increasing proportion of datasets within the SRS which have custom Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) rules, the Statistical Support team have created some new SDC guidance for researchers. This will help you to use the correct SDC rules first-time, avoiding delays in clearing outputs.
This information is provided as a spreadsheet that lists every standard dataset alongside its SDC threshold and whether or not there are any additional SDC rules. The spreadsheet will be regularly updated, to reflect the new datasets that have been brought into the SRS. It can be found inside the SRS at the following filepath:
Libraries$/SRS and SDC Guidance/SDC Guidance by Dataset/Dataset_thresholds_and_SDC_conditions_for_researchers__MM-YYYY
When completing your Output Request form, please list the datasets used in generating the output file(s) using the dataset names as listed in this document. If your dataset(s) have any custom SDC rules, please follow those rather than the default SRS rules and please note this in the final section of the Output Request form. This will help streamline clearance of your outputs.
Should you have any queries, please contact srs.customer.support@ons.gov.uk.
Ingest form guidance
When sending us ingest requests through email, please could you kindly include the ingest forms within the same email. This will help eliminate any delays and to speed up the process.
Please be reminded that it takes 5 working days for the Statistical Support team to deal with ingest and output requests once you have submitted your request. If Statistical Support reach out to you with a query, the 5 working days will start from day 1 again as soon as you reply.
New datasets in the SRS
Growing Up in England (GUIE)
GUIE is a new de-identified dataset for research, which links 2011 Census data from Office for National Statistics (ONS) with educational attainment data from Department for Education (DfE). DfE’s feasibility All Education Dataset for England (AEDE) is a large longitudinal record-level education dataset that covers government-funded education in England up to the academic year 2014/15. The dataset is created from the National Pupil Database (NPD), Individualized Learner Records (ILR) and Further Education (FE) data. The 2011 Census includes information on the characteristics of individuals and the households they occupy so linking AEDE data brings personal, family and household characteristics together with educational attainment information in a longitudinal cohort
If you have any questions, please contact SRS Customer Support.
UK Gross Value Added (GVA) for LSOAs (Lower Layer Super Output Areas)
This dataset is made by apportioning total GVA at local authority level to lower-level geographies (LSOAs in England and Wales, data zones in Scotland and super output areas in Northern Ireland) for the period 1998 to 2019. The lower-level geographies data form the small building blocks that we aggregate flexibly to larger areas including MSOAs, parliamentary constituencies, travel-to-work areas (TTWAs), health boards and towns. The building blocks enable users to build bespoke areas for analysis.
The breaking down of GVA to lower-level geographies is the first time such granularity has been achieved and represents a significant improvement which allows us to construct much more detailed geographic areas.
This new method for producing GVA data at subnational level is an experimental project and we would welcome your feedback in order to develop it further. Please support this important work by responding here. The consultation is live until 7th March 2021.
 ONS Research Funding Grant
ONS are welcoming submissions for grants to help fund academic research into economic measurement. The purpose of the grant is to help fund academic research into economic measurement. We are keen to encourage and support scholars in the early stages of their career, so applications are invited from postdoctoral academics working in UK universities.
Applications for funding of up to £5,000 are welcomed to enable research that covers the following areas:
- Measuring the labour share of income, including consistency through time
- Measuring accounting prices, in line with Dasgupta’s review of the Economics of Biodiversity
- Evaluating the productivity story in different industries following revisions introduced in Blue Book 2021 (including double deflation)
The deadline for submissions is 31 March 2022.
For further information on the eligibility criteria and how to apply, please visit our website.
If there are any queries, please email economic.engagement@ons.gov.uk
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