Government Analysis Function > Support > Analysis Function Innovation Hub

Analysis Function Innovation Hub

“To deliver analysis with impact, we need to unlock the potential of new tools and techniques.”

— Matt Gurden, Innovation Sponsor for the Government Analysis Function

What this hub is for

This page gives information about the guidance and support available to help you work more innovatively in your department. This includes information on both innovative tools and examples of how innovative techniques have been applied within government.

We want to hear from you about anything to do with innovation. Let us know if you:

  • would like to share your own innovative work
  • have any suggestions for how we could support innovation further
  • have anything else you would like to say about innovation

You can contact us by emailing the Analysis Function Central Team at Analysis.Function@ons.gov.uk.

Who this hub is for

The information on this page is for all analysts working within government who want to find new and exciting ways of working to provide outstanding outcomes for the public.

What we mean by innovation

Innovation refers to the development or adoption of new ideas, tools, and ways of working. This includes all aspects of producing quality analysis such as:

  • data collection
  • data access
  • user engagement
  • analysis processes
  • quality assurance
  • working together with colleagues
  • communication of outputs

Not everything needs to be innovative, but where possible we should strive for innovation and encourage the sharing and learning of experience across the analytical community.

Innovation is essential to analysis in government. It is a core element of the Analysis Function Standard and each of the analytical professions refer to innovation in their standards and expectations.

Innovation can help us to:

  • improve the efficiency of analysis
  • improve or maintain the quality of analysis
  • enhance the range and effectiveness of analysis
  • develop skills and capability
  • revisit existing challenges with new approaches

Analysis Function innovation showcases

This is a quarterly series of Analysis Function (AF) show and tell events which highlight extraordinary innovation across the AF. The showcases are hosted by Professor Sir Ian Diamond, Head of the Analysis Function and National Statistician.

Join us to learn more about the great innovative analysis work going on across government, share best practice, build communities and get inspiration for your own innovations. Teams from across Government will showcase the innovative work they are doing at each event. You can find more detail about previous examples of innovation included in the showcases in the “Innovation case studies” section on this webpage.

You can find out more about upcoming innovation showcases and register to attend on Eventbrite.

Innovation case studies

There are many excellent examples of innovation across government.

Select a heading to find out more about each piece of work.

The Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) developed an app that uses artificial intelligence methods to help with analysis of thousands of audit reports. The tool has been used internally and externally to analyse text from board minutes, surveys, consultation responses and more.

You can find out more about the GIAA Insights Engine on GOV.UK.

Kitchen Life 2 is a behavioural research project by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). It used video capture to understand real-life behaviour in household and commercial kitchens.

Kitchen Life 2 was the winner of the 2022 Analysis in Government Award for Innovation. You can read the Kitchen Life 2 research reports to find out more about the project.

The Oflog data explorer presents performance outcome metrics for local authority services, recognising that services are provided differently in different locations. You can find out more about the data explorer by:

The Department for Transport (DfT) and the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) used new techniques to understand how people view self-driving vehicles and how to effectively communicate safety information about them. You can find out more about their work on self-driving vehicles on GOV.UK.

Innovation resources

There are several resources that can help you with innovation in your department, including:

  • the Analysis Function Learning Curriculum — this contains a range of technical learning and development opportunities relevant to innovation
  • the Data Science Campus — this provides an evolving range of learning and development programmes, which concentrate on using data to encourage innovation for public good
  • the Integrated Data Service (IDS) — this securely enables co-ordinated access to a range of high-quality data which are critical to informing policy decisions and improving public services
  • Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAPs) — these are automated statistical and analytical processes which incorporate elements of software engineering best practice to ensure the pipelines are reproducible, auditable, efficient, and high quality
  • Splink — this is a Python package for probabilistic record linkage that allows you to deduplicate and link records from datasets without unique identifiers
  • Evidence House — this is an initiative led by Downing Street to find solutions for problems that affect the public, whilst also upskilling civil servants in the newest data science and analysis techniques

Contact us

If you would like more information or support with innovation, please email the Analysis Function Central Team at Analysis.Function@ons.gov.uk.