Approaches to teaching and promoting data quality assurance and sharing for longitudinal population studies

This presentation was delivered at the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) Conference 2025.

It explores strategies to equip data managers and practitioners with the skills needed to address data quality challenges effectively. Drawing on the “Skills Development for Managing Longitudinal Data for Sharing” project, commissioned by the ESRC and MRC as part of the initial Population Research UK (PRUK) efforts, we present insights and resources developed to enhance data management and sharing practices within the Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS) community.

This initiative responds to critical challenges identified by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to maximise the sharing of LPS data across social, economic, and biomedical sciences.

Highlights include:

• Design and delivery of interactive training workshops for over 300 data managers and professionals.

• Emphasis on both foundational and advanced skills, such as synthetic data creation and harmonisation tools.

• Integration of continuous evaluation to adapt to evolving community needs.

• Development of freely available, open-licensed training materials as a sustainable resource.

Together, these efforts provide practical support to strengthen data quality assurance and sharing across the LPS community, aligning with PRUK’s vision for impactful and reproducible data use.