ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. By linking together data held by different parts of government, and by facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up data sets, ADR UK is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how our society and economy function – tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions. ADR UK is made up of three national partnerships (ADR Scotland, ADR Wales, and ADR NI) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which ensures data provided by UK government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders or the public. The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub, which also promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget. ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation. To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on Twitter. ADR UK commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to identify key barriers to data sharing, as well as potential solutions.

Discrimination and social inequalities continue to pervade the workplace. The UK's Gender Pay Gap website, Equal Pay Day and the global #MeToo movement are but a few examples that highlight the growing awareness of deeply-embedded structural inequalities against women at work. These inequalities come about in part because of conscious and unconscious biases held against women - but it isn't just women who suffer. Bias is rife in the workplace towards other disadvantaged groups such as ethnic and racial minorities, people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and the LGBTQ+ community. Although recognition of these problems is growing, businesses struggle to find solutions to level the playing field. What can we do to help reduce inequality and discrimination at work? Through the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) hosted at the University of Exeter, my goal is to use causal interventions to reduce bias workplace to help create more equality at work. This project leverages the latest insights from across economics, psychology and management to design interventions that will be tested in large-scale randomised controlled trials (RCTs) within several UK organisations. These interventions will lead to a better working knowledge of how we create more fairness in the workplace, disseminated through the public-facing Centre for Behavioural Insights: Gender, Inclusivity, Diversity, Equality and Access ("BIG IDEAs") at the University of Exeter. Gender bias is now a well-recognised phenomenon and many organisations try to tackle this problem through "unconscious bias" training. However, there is little evidence that this training works towards the advancement of women and, if anything, it can backfire, giving those completing it the false impression that they are "cured" of unconscious bias (Dobbin & Kalev 2016; Atewologun et al. 2018). The problem in fact goes much deeper: bias is often deeply ingrained in our minds and affected, even amplified, by the institutions and social environment in which we live (Thaler & Sunstein 2008). A combination of conscious and unconscious bias have likely negatively affected the career developments of women (Bohnet 2016; Sheltzer & Smith 2014). But these biases extend also to other disadvantaged groups: workers from racial or ethnic minorities often face discrimination in the workplace, too; and so do individuals from a lower socioeconomic background (Bertrand & Mullainathan 2004; Stephens et al. 2019). My research agenda takes a comprehensive view of bias at the workplace, studying and aiming to reduce bias against these disadvantaged groups. This project is the first to test novel interventions (possible solutions) through multiple, longitudinal RCTs inside organisations. It goes beyond the study of surveys which have looked at correlations of bias and work outcomes; instead, I propose to actually introduce and causally test interventions to reduce bias to create a more equal workplace on the ground, observing the actual hiring, promotion, and retention outcomes of disadvantaged groups. This kind of research thrives through collaboration and co-creation with organisations. Some of my partner organisations are among the largest UK employers, including Unilever, a pioneer in addressing gender inequality. Others are start-ups and consultancies, including the Behavioural Insights Team, GapSquare and MoreThanNow, who work with influential clients who want to overcome bias against disadvantaged groups. In sum, my research aims to test co-created interventions in the workplace to reduce bias against disadvantaged groups and contribute to a more equal society. References: Atewologun et al (2018), Equality Human Rights Commission. Bertrand & Mullainathan (2004), AER 94(4), 991-1013. Bohnet (2016), What works, HUP. Dobbin & Kalev (2016), HBR. Thaler & Sunstein (2008), Nudge, YUP. Sheltzer & Smith (2014), PNAS 111(28) 10107-12. Stephens et al (2019), Curr Dir Psych Sci 28(1), 67-73.

Human energy consumption and its direct link to global climate change is among the most defining and challenging issues of our time. The original Material Cultures of Energy project (MCE, conducted in 2014-2017) examined how copiously consumed energy transformed daily life during the 20th century. The MCE project successfully revealed that consumers have shaped the diverse patterns of energy consumption in accordance with distinctively local, regional and national energy cultures. This follow-on project will build on the successes of MCE and its intervention into today's energy issues by directly engaging with the process of communicating energy-related knowledge and information. This approach presents a unique opportunity for arts and humanities research to directly influence professional practices that have important bearings on energy users' behaviour, knowledge and attitude. This project will explore methods for improving communication about energy-related information and knowledge to the public. The project will mobilise the MCE project's legacy assets and engage with a new community of stakeholders: 'energy communicators' such as museum curators; public relations and communication officers in business, government offices, NGOs, community energy groups. By collaborating with the key mediators of energy-related information, the project seeks to deliver the original project's research findings-in the broader context of today's energy communication-to stakeholders and the public effectively and immediately. Simultaneously, the project aims to benefit communication experts by creating new collaborative partnerships and a network of research institutions, the cultural industry and the energy sector. Using public museums of the Science Museum Group as the main site of dialogue and public events, the project will conduct five interrelated activities to address the Five Challenges for Energy Communication: Challenge 1. Object-based communication Challenge 2. Behavioural intervention Challenge 3. Visual media communication Challenge 4. Participatory communication Challenge 5. Community engagement These challenges form the bases of the project's five activities that are designed to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue, co-creation process and cross-fertilisation of expertise in the field of energy communication. The five activities and their main objectives are as follows: - Five Challenges Knowledge Exchange Sessions will create a sustained dialogue within the core project group, a multidisciplinary group of energy communicators working in research and practice. - The project's public events at regional science festivals will combine the insights from both the MCE project and the follow-on KE sessions in a tangible form. - An Energy Communication Conference will be organised to expand the project's scope, incorporating a wider community of communication experts within and outside of the UK. - The Energy Communication Network will perpetuate a close working relationship among energy communicators by establishing an online-based professional network and hub of information. The network will operate via the project website and is expected to continue beyond the life of the project. - The Energy Communication Toolkit will make available the collective knowledge and insights of energy communicators in an open-access format, intended as a reference and as learning material for communication experts and students. Our project partners represent diverse areas of energy communication, including the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Behavioural Insights Team, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem), the Community Energy England and the Carbon Co-op. By working closely with these partners, the follow-on project is expected to activate a dialogue across different fields of energy communication in a concerted effort to tackle major challenges for energy communication.

Although China has almost eliminated urban poverty, the total number of Chinese citizens in poverty remains at 82 million, most of which are rural residents. The development of rural finance is essential to preventing the country from undergoing further polarization because of the significant potential of such development to facilitate resource interflows between rural and urban markets and to support sustainable development in the agricultural sector. However, rural finance is the weakest point in China's financial systems. Rural households are more constrained than their urban counterparts in terms of financial product availability, consumer protection, and asset accumulation. The development of the rural financial system faces resistance from both the demand and the supply sides. The proposed project addresses this challenge by investigating the applications of a proven behavioural approach, namely, Libertarian Paternalism, in the development of rural financial systems in China. This approach promotes choice architectures to nudge people into optimal decisions without interfering with the freedom of choice. It has been rigorously tested and warmly received in the UK public policy domain. This approach also fits the political and cultural background in China, in which the central government needs to maintain a firm control over financial systems as the general public increasingly demands more freedom. Existing behavioural studies have been heavily reliant on laboratory experiments. Although the use of field studies has been increasing, empirical evidence from the developing world is limited. Meanwhile, the applications of behavioural insights in rural economic development in China remains an uncharted territory. Rural finance studies on the household level are limited; evidence on the role of psychological and social factors in rural households' financial decisions is scarce. The proposed project will bridge this gap in the literature. The overarching research question of this project is whether and how behavioural insights can be used to help rural residents in China make sound financial decisions, which will ultimately contribute to the sustainable economic development in China. The research will be conducted through field experiments in rural China. By relying on field evidences, the project team will develop policy tools and checklists for policy makers to help rural households make sound financial decisions. Two types of tools will be developed for policy makers, namely, "push" tools that aim to achieve short-term policy compliance among rural households so that they can break out of the persistent poverty cycle and "pull" tools that can reduce fraud, error, and debt among rural households to prevent them from falling back into poverty. Finally, the project team will also use the research activities and findings as vehicles to engage and educate rural residents, local governments, regulators, and financial institutions. Standard and good practice will be proposed to interested parties for the designs of good behavioural interventions; ethical guidelines will be provided to encourage good practice. This important step ensures that the findings of this project will benefit academia and practice, with long-lasting, positive impacts. The findings will benefit researchers in behavioural finance and economics, rural economics, development economics, political sciences, and psychology. The findings of and the engagement in this project will help policy makers to develop cost-effective behavioural change policies. Rural households will benefit by being nudged into sound financial decisions and healthy financial habits. The project will provide insights on how to leverage behavioural insights to overcome persistent poverty in the developing world. Therefore, the research will be of interest to communities in China and internationally.

IMPACT stands for 'Improving Adult Care Together'. It is a new £15 million UK centre for implementing evidence in adult social care, co-funded by the ESRC and the Health Foundation. It is led by Professor Jon Glasby at the University of Birmingham, with a Leadership Team of 12 other academics, people drawing on care and support, and policy and practice partners - along with a broader consortium of key stakeholders from across the sector and across the four nations of the UK. IMPACT is an 'implementation centre' not a research centre, drawing on evidence gained from different types of research, the lived experience of people drawing on care and support and their carers, and the practice knowledge of social care staff. It will work across the UK to make sure that it is embedded in, and sensitive to, the very different policy contexts in each of the four nations, as well as being able to share learning across the UK as a whole. As it gets up and running, IMPACT will seek to: Provide practical support to implement evidence in the realities of everyday life and front-line services Overcome the practical and cultural barriers to using evidence in such a pressured, diverse and fragmented sector Bring key stakeholders together to share learning and co-design our work in inclusive and diverse 'IMPACT Assemblies' (based in all four nations of the UK to reflect different policy and practice contexts) Work over three phases of development ('co-design', 'establishment' and 'delivery') to build a centre that creates sustainable change and becomes a more permanent feature of adult social care landscape