Title: Extension for the Longitudinal Studies Centre - Scotland (LSCS) from 2018 to 2020
Funder: Economic and Social Research Council

Abstract: Summary: We will continue to develop the Scottish longitudinal Study, extending its potential through the addition of new datasets, expanding its research user base by making the data more accessible via synthetic data and providing access from other national safe havens, whilst building on the infrastructure created by CALLS-Hub. Our 8 objectives for the 30 month period are to: 1. Enhance the SLS through linkages to new datasets The key focus of the first year will be the linking justice data to the SLS. Beyond 2018 we will continue investigating with a number of data controllers, the possibility of linking further and higher education data; information on educational attainment in private schools; social security data; diabetes data from the national diabetes database; and care home data. All new linkages to the SLS are subject to approval from the individual data controllers or subject to additional approval from the national-level Public Benefit and Privacy Panel (PBPP) for Health and Social Care. 2. Support access and use of the SLS by researchers, working towards extending access across Scotland We will continue our high quality support of users. In particular, we will promote the use of synthetic data extracts and improve the efficiency of accessing the SLS data by extending research access to the SLS to the other national Safe Havens. We will also provide web-based resources and training courses that will help make using the SLS easier. 3. Maintain the SLS and the SLS Safe Setting Room We will continue with the core maintenance tasks of the study including the introduction of thin clients and virtual machines. 4. Promote the research potential of the SLS We will continue revising and updating the website including new SLS working papers, and outcomes from projects, new training materials. This will cover some of the CALLS-Hub tasks. 5. Promote the impact of the SLS The SLS already has a track record of directly promoting the impact of its research. We will continue our collaborations with Scottish governmental agencies in promoting research that has public benefits and policy implications. 6. Work with CeLSIUS and NILS-RSU towards a smooth transition taking over CALLS-Hub We will work with colleagues in CeLSIUS and NILS-RSU to ensure that key parts of CALLS-Hub are maintained and continued. 7. Engage and collaborate with other ESRC investments We will continue working with other RSUs, Administrative Data Research Centre Scotland (ADRC-S), the ESRC Doctoral Training Network (DTN), UK Data Service (UKDS) and Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER) to seek collaboration in data governance and organisation of researcher training. 8. Conduct methodological development work - in particular on historical cohorts to allow longer and inter-censal follow-up We will undertake appropriate substantive research to promote the potential of the SLS. We will continue to work with colleagues in ADRC-S around extending the synthetic data we can offer researchers (ie long format data) now that it has been piloted by a few SLS projects. We will also extend our non-SLS historical datasets during the period. We will improve the recently added NHS GP postcode data by providing user documentation and derived variables that can be accessed by our researchers.


Research activity codes: 2.4 SURVEILLANCE AND DISTRIBUTION
Health categories: GENERIC HEALTH RELEVANCE