Data Linkage Education
Making data linkage understandable.
The Link Lab creates games, learning resources and participatory experiences that help people understand how data is connected, where uncertainty and bias arise, and how trustworthy data systems can be built.
What The Link Lab does.
Data linkage — connecting records across different datasets — underpins research, public services and policymaking. But the systems that make it work, and the uncertainties and biases they introduce, are often invisible to the people they affect. The Link Lab makes that visible.
Explore the Game
Play The Link Lab game and discover how data records are matched, where errors creep in, and what that means for real decisions.
Book a Workshop
Hands-on sessions for teams, researchers and policymakers. Build shared understanding of data linkage in an afternoon.
Understand Linkage
Why does linkage quality matter? Explore the evidence, the ethics and the everyday impact of connected data systems.
The Game
The Linkmaster’s Dilemma
An educational board game for teams, researchers and decision-makers.
Players navigate the technical, ethical and practical challenges of data linkage — making decisions under uncertainty, confronting bias, and weighing public benefit against risk. It turns invisible infrastructure into a shared, tangible learning experience.
What you’ll learn
- Record linkage
- Uncertainty & error
- Data quality
- Bias & fairness
- Governance
- Public benefit
Why learn through a game?
Games do something lectures and reports can’t. They put participants inside the problem — making real decisions, encountering real trade-offs, and discovering that other people see the same situation very differently.
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Learn by making decisions
Every turn presents a choice with consequences. Participants develop intuition for linkage trade-offs that reading alone rarely builds.
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Experience uncertainty
Data is rarely clean or complete. The game puts that uncertainty in your hands — and asks you to act anyway.
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Compare different perspectives
Researchers, policymakers and the public all see linkage differently. Players encounter those viewpoints and must negotiate them.
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Connect technical choices with social consequences
A matching threshold isn’t just a number — it decides who gets counted. The game makes that link concrete and discussable.
Learning and workshops
From community halls to conference rooms, The Link Lab designs learning experiences that meet people where they are.
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Public engagement
Accessible sessions for community groups, public events and citizen panels — no technical background required.
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Teaching and professional learning
Curricula, facilitated workshops and game-based modules for students, analysts, and professionals working with data.
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Organisational learning
Bespoke programmes for teams who commission, govern or use linked data — building shared vocabulary and confidence.
Who we work with
The Link Lab is designed to be useful across sectors — wherever linked data is used, commissioned or governed.
Communities
Universities
Public bodies
Researchers
Civil society
Educators
Policymakers
International partners
Support our work
Support our work
Voluntary contributions help us develop accessible resources, widen participation and create more opportunities for public discussion about data linkage, bias and trust.
The Link Lab CIC is a Community Interest Company, not a registered charity.
Contributions are voluntary, do not purchase a product or service, and are not eligible for Gift Aid.
Our purpose
Built for public benefit.
The Link Lab is a registered Community Interest Company. Surpluses are reinvested into educational resources, public engagement, widening participation and community-benefit activities.