Organisational Readiness and Perceptions of Synthetic Data Production and Dissemination in the UK: Survey Data, 2024

This collection comprises survey data gathered in 2024 as part of a project aimed at investigating how synthetic data can support secure data access and improve research workflows, particularly from the perspective of data-owning organisations.

The survey targeted data-owning organisations across the UK, including those in government, academia and health sector. Respondents were individuals who could speak on behalf of their organisations, such as data managers, principal investigators, and information governance leads.

The motivation for this collection stemmed from the growing interest in synthetic data as a tool to enhance access to sensitive data and reduce pressure on Trusted Research Environments (TREs). The study explored organisational engagement with two types of synthetic data: synthetic data generated from real data, and “data-free” synthetic data created using metadata only.

The aims of the survey were to assess current practices, explore motivations and barriers to adoption, understand cost and governance models, and gather perspectives on scaling and outsourcing synthetic data production. Conditional logic was used to tailor the survey to organisations actively producing, planning, or not engaging with synthetic data.

This collection includes responses from 15 UK-based organisations. The survey covered eight core topics: organisational background, production practices, anticipated and realised benefits, technical and financial challenges, cost structures, data sharing models, scalability, and openness to external synthetic data generation.

The data offers exploratory insights into how UK organisations are approaching synthetic data in practice and can inform future research, infrastructure development, and policy guidance in this evolving area.

The findings have informed recommendations to support the responsible and efficient scaling of synthetic data production across sectors.