Almost eleven short months after the commencement of the The Sensitive Evidence Tracking Working Group (SET-WG) activities, it is bittersweet to see the project come to an end. Yet, as T.S. Eliot wrote, “What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning.”
That feels particularly apt here. While this chapter of the SET-WG is closing, the work it has started – the conversations, relationships, ideas, and momentum it has generated – provides valuable learning on which to build as we continue to identify ways of improving the journey from evidence generation using sensitive data to public benefit.
Through WG meetings and public engagement events, it became clear that, while sectors value the who, what, where, and when insights that sensitive data can provide, turning evidence into action depends on much more than the quality of the evidence itself. It also depends on factors including understanding end users and their needs, the suitability of the data, increased access to and linkage of data, ensuring local relevance and clarity, connecting evidence to real-world experiences, cross-sectoral collaboration to interpret the evidence, explaining the why and how behind the evidence, ensuring that sectors have the resources and capacity needed to put that evidence into practice, and having mechanisms in place to track the long-term impact of research.
Taken together, the learning from the SET-WG has highlighted a range of areas worthy of further exploration. We hope that this work provides a useful foundation for future efforts to strengthen the journey from evidence generation to use – and, ultimately, to public benefit.
Acknowledgement: The help provided by the staff of the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS) and the NILS Research Support Unit (RSU) is acknowledged. The NILS is funded by the Health and Social Care Research and Development Division of the Public Health Agency (HSC R&D Division) and NISRA. The NILS-RSU is funded by the ESRC and the Northern Ireland Government. The authors alone are responsible for the interpretation of the data and any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of NISRA/NILS. The Honest Broker Service data has been supplied for the sole purpose of this project.
