The Innovation Panel data are released through the UK Data Service and are available in SPSS and Stata formats.
There are two primary versions of the Innovation Panel data, both available from the UK Data Service. One is available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement (SN 6849), and the other is a Special Licence version (available under SN 7083). The Special Licence version contains month and year of birth variables in addition to age, county variables, more detailed country and occupation coding for a number of variables, and various income variables have not been top-coded (see the documentation available with the Special Licence version for more detail on the differences). There is also a Secure Access version of the dataset (SN 7332), which includes British National Grid postcode references at 1m resolution, with assigned grid references mostly relating to the building of the matched address closest to the postcode mean.
We also release Special Licence geographical datasets for use in conjunction with the primary datasets. Low- and medium-level geographical identifiers are also available subject to Special Licence access conditions and fine detail geographic data are available under more restrictive Secure Access conditions that contains British National Grid postcode grid references (at 1m resolution) for the unit postcode of each household surveyed.
The access principles and guidance outlined in this section are derived from the Understanding Society Data Access Strategy.
Along with the data files, the zipped folder will contain this Innovation Panel User Guide at the time of release and the questionnaires. However we recommend using the Understanding Society Innovation Panel web pages as the documentation will develop over time, with the latest versions updated to these pages.
Researchers who would like to use the Innovation Panel need to register with the UK Data Service to download the dataset. Researchers should also read the UK Data Service Research Data Handling and Security: Guide for Users before downloading the data. Under the terms and conditions of access this is required reading for users who obtain Special Licence data or Secure Access data, where disclosure risk is increased.
In addition to the main Understanding Society data, we have produced data files with information to link the Innovation Panel survey data with geographic units including Local Authority Districts, Area Classification for Output Areas, Travel to Work Areas, Westminster Parliamentary Constituencies, Local Education Authorities, and Primary Care Trusts. See the list of the available datasets on the Access the Innovation Panel data page.
