This community essay shared by the British Science Association explores the challenges of effectively engaging communities with administrative data research. Providing practical advice and examples of involving people in data research to ensure it accurately captures and reports the experiences of the people behind the data.

This article shares findings from the PIONEER Health Data Research Hub at Health Data Research UK. The team engaged 350 patients, carers, healthcare staff, and public members to explore their views on how anonymised health data is used for research and their awareness of the NHS data opt-out.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) share results from a survey of 2,051 UK adults and focus groups of 32 participants designed to understand their hopes, fears and priorities in the design, development and delivery of smart data schemes.