Data for Research Change Management Board minutes - July 2026

Attendees and apologies

• Alastair McAlpine, Scottish Government, Administrative Data Research Scotland Co-Director (Chair)
• Greville Ramsay, Scottish Government, Change Management Lead
• Sean White, Scottish Government, Senior Systems Business Analyst
• Eilidh Mclaughlin, Scottish Government, Deputy Director
• Stephen O’Neill, Scottish Government, Policy and Impact Lead
• Emma Gordon, Administrative Data Research England, Director of ADR UK Strategic Hub and Director of ADR England
• Bill South, Office for National Statistics, Data Access Deputy Director
• Esther Roughsedge, National Records of Scotland, Head of Demographic Statistics
• Chris Dibben, Administrative Data Research Scotland, Co-Director
• Katherine O’Sullican, Research Data Scotland
• Natasha Kong, Economic and Social Research Council, Senior Programme Coordinator

Items and actions

Welcome and Apologies

• The Chair welcomed members and noted that attendance was reduced due to the holiday period. Despite this, it was considered important to maintain momentum and continue progressing the work of the Change Management Board. Apologies were recorded from Mark Sawyer (EPCC), who was on annual leave. The Board agreed that the meeting should proceed as planned.

Record of Decisions from Meeting 6, 27 May 2026 

• Greville Ramsay confirmed that there were no outstanding actions from Meeting 6 and apologised for the delay in circulating the minutes. Members were invited to submit any amendments directly to him for inclusion before the next meeting.
•   
• Carole Morris advised that she had missed recent meetings due to annual leave and family emergencies and requested copies of any slides presented. Sean White agreed to provide the slides and offer a separate briefing to ensure she was fully up to date. Sean noted that discussions to date had focused on securing approval for the general direction of travel and that no detailed solution design had yet been agreed.

Task and Finish Workshop update

• Sean White provided an update on the Researcher Access Management and Approvals Task and Finish Group. Development estimates for enhancements to the RDS web front end had been received and discussions were ongoing with Research Data Scotland regarding delivery phasing. 
• The Task and Finish Group had agreed to move into a redesign phase using a researcher-led use case involving multiple approval panels. The proposed future approach includes improved researcher guidance and mentoring, standardised documentation, a single researcher entry point, support for multiple approval routes, enhanced workflow management and improved handling of approvals and exceptions.  
• Members discussed opportunities to reduce complexity for researchers, align more closely with approaches operating elsewhere in the UK, and ensure that any future system supports collaboration while maintaining governance requirements. Sean outlined an aspirational timetable under which design activity would complete by the end of October 2026, followed by development of a business case and implementation planning.

Finance

• Alex Ramage reported an estimated underspend of approximately £260,000 across the ADR Scotland and Scottish Government environment. Members discussed how available funds could support implementation of Change Management Board priorities, including Researcher Access Management and future Indexing, Linking and Ingest activity. 
• Emma Gordon and Katherine O’Sullivan provided further information on potential VAT-related funding recovery and the governance requirements associated with any repurposing of ADR UK funding. Members noted that final costs remain unknown and will be dependent on completion of design activity. Funding may also need to span more than one financial year.

Next Steps 

• Continue the Researcher Access Management and Approvals redesign and discovery work. 
• Develop design outputs, implementation options, indicative costs and phased delivery proposals for future Board consideration. 
• Progress extended design workshops to support service redesign and stakeholder engagement. 
• Develop funding proposals and business cases alongside detailed design activity. 
• Explore use of available underspend funding to support Change Management Board priorities, including Researcher Access Management and future Indexing, Linking and Ingest work. 
• Present design outputs, funding proposals and implementation plans at future Change Management Board meetings. 
• Confirm the date of the next Change Management Board meeting. 

Actions 

Sean White 

• Provide previous workshop slides to Carole Morris. 
• Arrange a catch-up briefing with Carole Morris. 
• Develop implementation options, indicative costs and phased delivery proposals for Board consideration. 

Greville Ramsay 

• Coordinate and support arrangements for extended design workshops. 
• Receive and incorporate member comments on the Meeting 6 minutes. 

All Members 

• Submit comments and amendments on Meeting 6 minutes directly to Greville Ramsay for inclusion prior to approval