In addition to the CDRC Masters Dissertation Scheme, the CDRC also stores and disseminates large datasets for students and/or researchers to use in their own independent research projects.
These data are available at three different levels of access: open, safeguarded and secure, and may be of interest to Masters students for their dissertations given that the data are of vast size and have only very recently been made available to the research community.
All CDRC held data can be browsed on our datastore. Examples of interesting datasets are provided below.
CDRC held consumer data are split into three services depending on access requirements. These are:
Open data service
Data which are freely available to all for any purpose – examples may include geodemographic data derived from the Census. Users are required to register on the CDRC datastore and are able to download a wealth of open data for use in their own research. Datasets cover topics ranging from education, energy, mobility, internet and social media, amongst others. A list of all our open datasets are available here.
Safeguarded data service
Data to which access is restricted because of license conditions, but where data are not considered ‘personally-identifiable’ or otherwise sensitive – an example might include data from retail companies on store turnover. Access is available via a remote service with registration and project approval requirements. Examples include:
- Appliances Online: Transaction Data – at MSOA for England and Wales and Intermediate Zone for Scotland, total transaction frequencies by product and total transactions by time band for the period Jan 2013 – Feb 2016
- Bicycle sharing data for London and Dublin
- British Population Survey – face to face market research surveys from 2008-2015 at LSOA
- Registry Trust Ltd – County Court Judgements Data: aggregated County Court Judgement Records from 2001 for England and Wales and from 2008 for Scotland
- Domestic Energy Provider – Aggregated statistics including, but not limited to, population estimates of energy consumption at different times of day
– Aggregated statistics including, but not limited to, population estimates of energy consumption at different times of day - Local Data Company-UCL SmartStreetSensor Footfall data – five minute footfall counts for sensors located in retail centres
- Local Data Company – Retail Type or Vacancy classification at MSOA
- CDRC: Synthetic Population and Enhanced Synthetic Population – at MSOA individual level data from England and Wales, generated from the 2011 census data
- UK Women’s Cohort Study – investigating associations between diet and cancer in the UK, the study was established in 1995 with the aim of investigating links between diet and health
Secure data service
Data which need to be held under the most secure conditions with highly restricted access. Examples might include data on individual consumer purchases. Access is available via secure services at CDRC sites (London, Liverpool, Leeds), with registration and project approval requirements. These include:
- Smart Meter energy consumption data from a domestic energy supplier
- Store transactions (linked to customer loyalty accounts) from a high street retailer
- Electoral Roll data (1998 – 2012) and Consumer Registers (2003 – present)
- British Population Survey
- Debit card transactions from a Youth Banking Card Provider
- Delivery data from Appliances Online
- Online retail transactions from Shop Direct
- WhenFresh/Zoopla Property Rentals and Associated Migration
Using the data
If you wish to gain access to CDRC held safeguarded or secure data, you will need to fill in an application form on our datastore. Please note that the research approvals process may take several weeks, so do apply early to ensure that you have secured data access before you commence your research. If you wish to enquire about using the data services email us at info@cdrc.ac.uk.