Access to reliable information is essential for good decision making.
Helping decision makers in the West Midlands access reliable information is at the heart of our role. We work closely with organisations and individuals to identify and record data and evidence in the region to build a comprehensive, publicly-accessible online collection of West Midlands data and evidence.
The Resource Catalogue is part of this website and is the main tool we use to share data and evidence. The catalogue provides full details on reports, datasets, websites and other information resources published by a wide range of organisations.
The catalogue is searchable and you can filter search results by subject, date, type and geographical coverage to help you find the information you want.
We recognise that we cannot manage and maintain a comprehensive regional resource catalogue alone. We encourage external submissions and any registered subscriber to this website can submit a resource online. Guidelines on submitting resources are available.
We also organise 'mapping' projects in which partners identify and catalogue resources to share with others. Some of these projects are formed around a theme, such as those projects led by our topic group members, whilst others take the form of a partner organisation submitting their own data and publications to share with others in the region.
Explore a variety of datasets using interactive maps. The geographical display of data helps to understand how separate issues affect the West Midlands region and local areas.
We often use geographic information systems (GIS) to produce maps to inform our research work. A selection of map images are available to download.
The Geographical Information Topic Group produced a set of guidelines on handling geographic data to signpost good practice and detail topics such as data collection, data storage, data distribution and metadata.
A free, simple and downloadable protocol to enable organisations to simplify and encourage sharing of data, meet their legal obligations and deal with issues such as intellectual property rights, data security and data formatting.