A year-long series of events will celebrate ARK, a collaboration between Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast, as a source of trusted, independent and research-informed insights for Northern Ireland in a changing world.
Established in 2000 by researchers at Ulster University and Queen’s University Belfast, ARK is Northern Ireland’s social policy hub with a primary goal of increasing the accessibility and use of academic data and research.
To celebrate its milestone anniversary, ‘ARK at 25’ was launched at a special event held at Belfast on 24 February 2025. The year-long series of events will include workshops, policy roundtables, seminars and a conference symposium, all aimed at demonstrating how ARK’s work supports critical policy debate and informed policy making.
A healthy civic society
Based across the campuses of Ulster University and Queen's University Belfast, ARK provides robust and independent evidence, in support of knowledge-based policy as key to a healthy civic society. Researchers, policymakers, journalists, community and other voluntary groups, schoolchildren and their teachers are all users of ARK – in fact anyone with an interest in social and political issues in Northern Ireland can find data to support their work.
Upcoming ‘ARK at 25’ events
Upcoming ARK at 25 events include a Using Arts to Tackle Ageism (Arts Activism) workshop on 14 March 2025 at Queen’s, a roundtable on Minority Ethnic Environmental Leadership on 31 March at ArtsEkta and a public lecture by Professor Danny Dorling on Social Injustice and Child Poverty in September.
For full details and further events, please visit the ARK website
Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University, and ARK Co-Director, Ann Marie Gray, said:
“ARK has not shied away from challenging issues or difficult conversations; facilitating, provoking and stimulating discussions across the research and policy interface in Northern Ireland. Through working in partnership across academic disciplines and with civil society, we have ensured that academic evidence has informed policy debate and contributed to legislative change.”
Senior Social Survey Officer at Queen’s University Belfast, and ARK Co-Director, Dr. Paula Devine, said:
“In 2000, ARK pioneered free access to academic data. While information is now much more accessible, in an era of disinformation and misinformation, it is perhaps more important than ever that people have access to independent and robust evidence. The general public have been important collaborators with ARK’s research – to date 133,606 people have completed one of ARK’s public attitudes surveys.”
Read Sync NI's free online Big Data Belfast autumn magazine here.
Subscribe to the Sync NI newsletter for all the latest technology news, jobs and upcoming events in Northern Ireland.
Visit Sync NI online for the latest technology news in Northern Ireland.
