NISRA-led Research

The ADR-NI Administrative Research Unit (ARU) is responsible for carrying out government-led research on behalf of NI government departments.

It provides a government research function delivering a research programme anchored on the NI Programme for Government (PfG). The ARU team continuously engage with departmental policy leads to identify novel data linkage opportunities to take forward timely and policy-relevant research.

Published research

Date Project Theme
Feb 2024 Assessing equality pay gaps in Northern Ireland - disability Inequality and social inclusion
Jan 2023 Disability and employment Inequality and social inclusion
Nov 2022 Covid-19 mortality (Mar 2020 - Nov 2021) and equality Health and wellbeing
Jul 2022 Irish language - exploration of characteristics of those with Irish language skills and change in Irish language knowledge oer time Inequality and social inclusion
Jul 2022 Ulster scots language - exploration of characteristics of those with ulster scots language knowledge Inequality and social inclusion
Dec 2021 Covid-19 mortality (Mar - Sep 2020) and equality Health and wellbeing
Sep 2021 Mental health status of population in employment Health and wellbeing
Mar 2021 Alcohol specific deaths Health and wellbeing
Mar 2020 Drug related deaths Health and wellbeing

Upcoming research

Date Project Theme Description
Spring 2024 School size and educational outcomes Children and young people This research seeks to identify key post-primary educational outcomes and explore if/how they are impacted by school size.
Spring 2024 Mortality risk for ex-prisoners Crime and justice This proof-of-concept research is being done in collaboration with NISRA DoJ colleagues. It builds on a bespoke, novel data linkage between DoJ ex-prisoner data and General Regitrar Office deaths data to to explore deaths of ex-prisoners with a particular focus on the period immediately following release.
Spring 2024 Preventable deaths - exploration of deaths associated with drugs, alcohol and/or suicide Health and wellbeing This research seeks to explore the profile of deaths by suicide, drugs and/or alcohol; and, examine individual and household characteristic associations with these deaths with a particular focus on assessing occupations that may be at highest risk from suicide, drug and alcohol mortality.
Spring 2024 Assessing equality pay gaps in northern ireland - gender Inequality and social inclusion This research uses the novel Earnings and Employees Study 2011 and will contribute to the existing evidence base quantifying gender pay gaps in Northern Ireland. Pay gaps between men and women across a number of personal and job-related characteristics will be quantified. The research will also use statistical modelling to identify key job-related and personal factors associated with the gender pay gap.