Community engagement sits at the heart of what Population Research UK (PRUK) is here to do.
We’re launching our programme of community engagement work, aiming to bring the Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS) community together to address shared needs and strengthen advocacy for the sector. Our work will support data and evidence users, study teams and the services that support them.
We’ll cover a range of areas that have been highlighted to us as areas of need through the consultations we have undertaken with members of the LPS community, and through our interactions with experts from government, funders, and other stakeholder groups.
Some questions we’re planning to address include: How should surveys approach measurement of social media use to provide strong evidence for policymaking? What are the opportunities for LPS data users and study teams from linkage to new forms of digital data? What does the new government directive allowing linkage of GP data in England mean for data users and study teams?
To do this we’re going to be launching a seminar series, hosting a national conference, funding new Communities of Practice and offering staff secondments to work on topical areas. We’ll also offer stronger signposting of the services already available to LPS data users and studies to make the most of what’s already out there.
An important area of our work is in engaging the public. We’ll work – together with other organisations working in this space – to raise awareness of findings from longitudinal study data and strengthen public trust.
We’re not doing this work alone! We want to keep hearing from the community and are keen to support new ideas and activities. If you have suggestions or would like to collaborate with us, please get in touch at info-pruk@bristol.ac.uk.
Hearing from our LPS user representative
We spoke to Ellena Badrick, our LPS user representative, to explore what our investment in engagement will mean for the community. In this role, Ellena ensures that user perspectives remain central to our activities.
Ellena, you are a Senior Research Fellow working on the Born in Bradford cohort. From what you’ve seen in your work, how do you think PRUK’s community engagement efforts could make a difference for the LPS sector?
PRUK’s work is not only to fund projects that enhance a more interconnected data landscape but is also to be genuinely supportive to LPS researchers in practical ways, investing in coordination, shared resources, clearer pathways to data discovery and access.
From my experience – both using LPS data and facilitating access – I’ve seen how quickly strong ideas lose momentum when processes are unclear or inconsistent across studies.
With this investment in community engagement, PRUK with help stakeholders in this space to share and develop their practices, address common challenges and co-develop solutions.
This is a good opportunity to ensure that key strategic initiatives can benefit from coordinated LPS contribution. PRUK’s efforts will focus on creating new opportunities, improve efficiency and reduce overlap and duplication within the sector.
What do you hope your contribution as an LPS user representative will help unlock for the wider community?
By bringing the perspective of active data users, I want to ensure engagement strategies reflect how data is actually accessed, analysed, and shared – and where the real barriers lie.
Strengthening links between studies and sharing what works (and what doesn’t) can improve the researcher experience, particularly around data access, which is often the first hurdle new users face.
As LPS data become more powerful – and more complex – through linkage to administrative and environmental datasets, it’s important to clarify pathways, support best practice, and promote the questions LPS researchers are uniquely placed to answer.
Based on your day‑to‑day work with participants and data, what feels like the biggest need in the LPS community right now?
Data discovery and access remain common frustrations across the LPS community.
We hope these will be addressed through some of the innovations currently being developed by PRUK and its partners, including the searchable register and UK LPS information hub, and the LPS infrastructure landscape simplification projects identified in our delivery plan.
There are also perennial challenges linked to funding cycles and short-term contracts, which can exacerbate fragmentation across the LPS community and slow progress.
As we start this work, what are you personally most excited about?
The development of synthetic data and new models for providing secure data access is likely to have increasing impact, both nationally and internationally.
This work is being led by our partner, UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC), who are developing a new training Trusted Research Environment (t‑TRE) containing synthetic data.
The t‑TRE will provide a safe space for researchers to explore and work with data linked across an increasingly diverse range of sources.
Supporting studies to anticipate these shifts is where PRUK can add real value.
And finally, for anyone in the LPS community who wants to get involved with our work, what’s the best way for them to do that?
The best starting point is to connect with PRUK’s channels, such as our bimonthly newsletter, social media – LinkedIn, BlueSky, X and YouTube – or regularly check our website, and our engagement opportunities.
We aim for this to be a two-way process: PRUK will provide webinars, workshops, a conference, and targeted funding opportunities, but we also want to hear directly from users about where the biggest frustrations lie, what are current hot topics and which areas should be prioritised over the coming years.
Looking ahead, we’re pleased to share that we’ll be sponsoring the Society for Longitudinal and Lifecourse Studies annual conference, taking place in Belgium from 29 June – 1 July 2026. If you’re attending, it would be a great opportunity to catch up in person.
We’re also in the early stages of planning our own conference for early 2027.
More details will follow soon, so keep an eye on our channels for updates.
Closing remarks
This investment in community engagement aligns with our aim to coordinate and advocate for the LPS community. By working collaboratively across studies, infrastructures, and stakeholder groups, we’re helping to reduce duplication of effort and build a more connected research landscape where shared challenges can be addressed collectively.
This work happens in close partnership with CLOSER and UK LLC.
Together, we’re bringing complementary strengths to the sector: enhancing discovery capabilities for LPS, streamlining data access processes and mechanisms, facilitating the use of linked longitudinal data, and building capacity and skills across the community.
“We’re a community‑driven initiative, and our new engagement activity is designed to bring people working on common issues together to share knowledge and best practice, and to foster a culture of collaboration across studies and scientific disciplines”
Alissa Goodman, Population Research UK Co-Director
About Ellena Badrick
Ellena Badrick is a Senior Research Fellow working on the Born in Bradford cohort study and Connected Bradford. She is an epidemiologist with an interest in the use of routinely collected data in research, risk prediction modelling and survival analysis. She has worked collaboratively across the whole ecosystem including the Better4U consortium and UK LLC.
Stay connected with us
To stay informed about upcoming events, funding opportunities and news, we encourage you to sign up to our newsletter. If you have ideas, insights or feedback to share about our work, please reach out to us via email – info-pruk@bristol.ac.uk
About our funding models
At Population Research UK, we’re committed to supporting a more interconnected data landscape, where users of LPS benefit from a seamless journey.
To achieve this, our delivery plan uses three complementary funding models: PRUK Hub to centrally deliver community engagement and advocacy; open calls to invite competitive applications where specialist delivery is needed; and partner-led funding applied where our UKRI partners – CLOSER and UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration – are best placed to deliver activity, building on existing UKRI supported infrastructure and avoiding duplication.
The community engagement activity falls under the PRUK-hub led funding model.
