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Smart Data Foundry (SDF), a University of Edinburgh (UoE) subsidiary, has been awarded funding of £3m, to operate a new financial-data service. This will enable more researchers to study the financial health of millions of households across the UK.
The funding has been provided by Smart Data Research UK (SDR), a £59m UK Research and Innovation investment in digital infrastructure, which brings together companies, academics, innovators and government to provide safe and secure access to smart data.
The new service, which will operate from SDF’s base at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, will be part of a network of five other data services across the country.
Led by SDF’s interim chief executive, Dougie Robb and Professor Chris Dibben from the UoE, the new service will provide unprecedented insights into the economic health of the UK through secure access to de-identified banking and finance data from millions of households and businesses.
Dougie said: “We look forward to joining five of the most forward-thinking data service organisations in the UK in this groundbreaking network. It will foster data sharing partnerships between academia, public institutions and private enterprise, leading to public-good outcomes which will improve the lives of people across the UK.”
Chris added: “Understanding the financial situation of households across the UK is a vitally important for social and economic research. However, this key aspect of economic life is often poorly measured in our research datasets – or even absent. This investment by SDR in a financial-data service will allow us to change this situation.”
By partnering with financial institutions and leading research institutes, the new service is set to deliver insights into productivity, prosperity and health and wellbeing, providing access to detailed evidence about financial behaviours, economic resilience and regional economic activity.
It will also improve understanding of how economic shocks and policy interventions affect different communities, helping policymakers design more targeted and effective responses to economic challenges:
Magdalena Getler, head of academic engagement at SDF, said: “With the new Data (Use and Access) Bill currently going through parliament, we are at the beginning of a new age for data.
“If successful, the new legislation will empower safe data use, access and sharing for the good of society.”
SDF was established in 2022. In association with its partners, it uses financial data to understand the economic dynamics at play in people’s lives and how consumers, businesses and communities can be helped with the resulting insights.
It is an independent, not-for-profit organisation and works with major financial institutions, including the Financial Conduct Authority, as well as the public sector and charities.
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