About the Economic and Social Data Service

The Economic and Social Data Service is a national data archiving and dissemination service which came into operation in January 2003. The service is a jointly-funded initiative sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

The ESDS is a distributed service, based on a collaboration between four key centres of expertise:

• UK Data Archive (UKDA), University of Essex
• Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER) , University of Essex
• Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), University of Manchester
• Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), University of Manchester

These centres work collaboratively to provide preservation, dissemination, user support and training for an extensive range of key economic and social data, both quantitative and qualitative, spanning many disciplines and themes. The ESDS provides an integrated service offering enhanced support for the secondary use of data across the research, learning and teaching communities.

ESDS Management providing integration and management of the ESDS, establishing consistency and standards