We are looking to fund projects which use BDR to address research priorities covering areas within the Department for the Economy’s ‘10X Economy’: an economic vision for a decade of innovation.
The de-identified datasets are being made available to a small number of research teams through this funding opportunity to:
- enable beta testing of the BDR in advance of making the dataset available to wider researchers
- provide feedback on the quality of documentation created by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) such as the metadata, synthetic data and other resources
- inform the future development of the BDR including identifying a programme of making future data available to all Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK researchers and increasing the volume of data from BDR that researchers can access.
This is the first time NISRA is making this data available in the UK.
NISRA is requesting that successful applicants complete a data insight report and a data explained report during the project. These will cover:
- outcomes from the researcher
- data access
- documentation
- data quality issues
- future research areas.
Templates will be issued to successful applicants.
In addition to the research requirements, successful applicants will be required to attend three meetings with NISRA to provide feedback that will be used to improve user access for future researchers.
Funding
You can apply for up to £65,000 for up to six months. Eligibility decisions will be made mid-August.
Projects we will not fund
We cannot fund projects using data available outside BDR. Other data cannot be linked to BDR at this stage. We will not consider projects that could be funded through existing UKRI funding schemes and funding opportunities.
Available data
BDR is available on a restricted basis for analysis by government researchers. NISRA would like to widen its use and make it available to ADR UK researchers.
View a summary of the de-identified business surveys (NISRA).
The release of data to researchers is for three main datasets.
Northern Ireland Annual Business Inquiry (NIABI) 2014 to 2020
The NIABI 2014 to 2020 collects both financial and employment information from businesses and other establishments and covers about two thirds of the economy.
This includes the production, construction, distribution and service industries in Northern Ireland but excludes public sector activity for the most part.
The NIABI provides a number of high-level indicators of economic activity such as the:
- total value of sales and work completed by businesses (turnover)
- value of the purchase of goods, materials and services
- total employment costs.
The contribution of different industries to the overall value of economic activity can be assessed and because estimates of employment are collected at the same time, it is also possible to get a measure of value added and costs per head to allow better comparison between different sized industrial sectors.
The NIABI is designed to provide the best estimates for Northern Ireland as well as providing information that is used at a later stage to inform UK National and Regional Accounts estimates.
In 2011, questions relating to the value of trade were added to the NIABI questionnaire and as such, the NIABI also includes data used to produce a number of trade-related measures within the Broad Economy Sales and Exports Statistics (BESES).
BESES is a National Statistics annual measure of local businesses’ sales to and purchases from markets outside Northern Ireland.
Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) 2014 to 2020
The BRES 2014 to 2020 collects employee job figures by gender and working pattern from public and private sector businesses in Northern Ireland (NI).
The data is collected at local unit level (individual business sites) which allows for disaggregation of the employee job counts by NI geographies. The business description is collected which allows for disaggregation of the employee job counts by industry.
The BRES collects information at a local unit level that is used to update the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The data collected includes:
- contact details including email address and business address
- business operational status
- business activity.
The business register information obtained from the NI BRES is processed within the Economic Labour Market and Statistics Branch (ELMSB) within NISRA. This data is used to update the NI element of the IDBR which is used as a sampling frame for business surveys.
Earnings and Employees Study (EES) 2011
The EES 2011 links together variables from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) 2011 with variables from the Census of Population and Housing 2011, and Capital Value data from the Land and Property Services.
The dataset takes the form of one pre-linked table. As the ASHE sample comprises approximately 1% of all employees in NI who were covered by Pay As You Earn (PAYE) schemes, the EES contains 5,770 distinct ASHE records which have been linked to Census records.
The EES includes data from ASHE. The ASHE is a UK-wide survey that provides data on hourly, weekly and annual earnings by gender, work patterns, industry and occupation, including public versus private sector pay comparisons.
The EES links ASHE variables with variables from the Census (NISRA) of Population and Housing 2011.
The Census of Population and Housing collects information every 10 years about people and households in NI. It is used by central and local governments, health authorities and many other organisations to plan and provide future services.
It is hoped that research involving the EES data will help to inform the development and monitoring of public policy as well as provide an evidence base for decision making.
There are a number of potential EES research themes. These include, but are not limited to:
- factors influencing variation in median pay
- graduates and the workplace
- disparity in pay and migration
- public versus private jobs
- geography and pay.
The data will be made available to successful applicants remotely through the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS).
