The UK Data Archive is curator of the largest collection of digital data in the social sciences and humanities in the United Kingdom. With several thousand datasets relating to society, both historical and contemporary, our Archive is a vital resource for researchers, teachers and learners.

The research of social scientists affects us all at every stage of our lives. Their findings influence government policies on childcare, education, wages, health, and pensions. For much of this research, social scientists depend upon resources that are quite different from those needed by other scientists. Whereas an astronomer needs a large telescope, a social scientist very often needs access to large collections of high quality data.

Collecting data from surveys, questionnaires or interviews for one study is a painstaking process. Providing that accurate records have been kept, data that have been collected for one study can be analysed again for an entirely different piece of research. Recognising this need, in 1967 the Social Science Research Council supported the establishment of the Archive, and has provided the long-term commitment of funds, which has been vital for its success.

We are an internationally acknowledged centre of expertise in the areas of acquiring, curating and providing access to data. Since 2005 our archive has been designated a Place of Deposit by the National Archives allowing us to curate public records. We acquire high quality data from the academic, public, and commercial sectors, providing continuous access to these data while we also support existing and emerging communities of data users.

We manage the Economic and Social Data Service which is the UK's flagship portal for research resources, where we host key national and international survey data and qualitative data. We also host a number of data services such as the Census portal and the History Data Service. More recently we are providing secure access to disclosive and more sensitive data through our Secure Data Service. We are engaged in a number of data management initiatives, running the Rural Economy and Land Use Programme (Relu) Data Support Service. We also provide data curation for other organisations.

Our organisation and activities are largely funded by the ESRC, the JISC and the University of Essex, to whom we are grateful for continuing support. We are proud to be actively engaged in research and development, and throughout our 40+ year history, we have remained at the cutting edge to become an international leader in curating and sharing data. We regularly win grants from other funders which enable us to continue these forward-looking activities. As a result, our Archive is well placed to take advantage of opportunities created by rapid technological change.