Your Data

Find out more about how we safely use volunteers' data to support mental and physical health research.

Your Data

The information you provide us with or allow us to access is what we call ‘your data’. 

This data is all de-identified, and allows researchers to conduct important health research that helps the understanding of common and rare diseases, as well as advance research in mental health, neurodiversity, and much more.

  • Your saliva sample
  • Your baseline questionnaire answers
  • Access to your health records
  • Additional data may include: any other optional questionnaires or studies you participate in.

Your saliva sample contains your DNA.

DNA sequences are important in health and disease, and so are vital to study for future disease prediction and treatments. The saliva sample you provide enables approved researchers to study our volunteers for this purpose. This may include Whole Genome Sequencing, where we read all 6 billion letters of your DNA.

Your DNA will become part of a broader picture that will mean we can look at which DNA sequences are important in health or disease. Research of this kind help researchers to develop treatments and cures.

You can visit our FAQs for more information on your data and how we protect it.


When you join Generation Scotland, one thing we ask you agree to is data linkage. This means we can link your data anonymously to your NHS and GP records. This helps researchers understand the interactions between volunteer genetics and their health.

Learn more about how data linkage works in the video below.


Find out about UK Data Protection Laws: Understanding Longitudinal Study Data & The Law, with the infographic series linked below, funded by UK Health Data Research Alliance.

You can also visit our FAQs for more information on your data and how we protect it.


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