The Winning and Highly Commended entries of the sixth edition of the British Data Awards, with headline partner Atombit, have now been announced.

Last night the UK’s data community gathered to celebrate the Finalists of the British Data Awards 2026, with over 700 people attending the sold-out ceremony in London. With a record 462 entries shared, it’s fair to say that competition to be named a Finalist, let alone a Winner, has been tough, and that our Finalists have showcased some of the most impactful data work being carried out across the United Kingdom – the kind of work that makes us a global data leader. The range of individuals and organisations taking part has once again reminded us of the rich vein of data talent running throughout every corner of the United Kingdom.

As we wrap-up our quest to discover and celebrate the UK’s data success stories for another year, we’d like to thank everyone who entered. Paolo Righetti, Founder & CEO of Atombit, our 2026 headline partner said, “Huge congratulations to every Winner, every Finalist, and every team behind them. Every trophy represents the hard work that makes data an irreplaceable strategic advantage. It was a privilege to share the evening with so many of the people moving our industry forward.”

And for one last time, we’d also like to extend our thanks to the British Data Awards 2026 all-star judging panel:

Helen Blaikie: Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Aston University | Neil Carden: President, EMEA, Blend | Caroline Carruthers: CEO, Carruthers and Jackson | Chasey Davies-Wrigley: Head of Data and AI, Made Tech | Rob Holtom: Executive Director, Digital, Data & Tech, Information Commissioner’s Office | Asheeka Hyde: Technology Director – Data, Analytics & AI, SSP Group | Jason Johnson: Managing Director, Predatech | Matt Lovell: Group Director of Data & AI, JD Sports Fashion | Di Mayze: Chief Data & AI Officer, Marks & Spencer | Roisin McCarthy: CEO, Women in Data | Catarina Runa Miranda: Global AI Director, Pandora | Jonathan Moxham: Director of Data & Insight, British Red Cross | Sami Rahman: Head of AI Strategy & Solutions, DataArt | Professor Ed Rochead: Chair, Alliance for Data Science Professionals | Romit Sen: Chief Data & AI Officer, Allwyn UK | Sandra Stanley: Chief Data Science Officer, dunnhumby | Niresh Rajah: Chair, Financial Services Working Group, UKAI | Hannah Tipney: Senior Director, Precision Medicine Data & Analytics, GSK | Lucy Vickers: Chief Data Officer and Chief Statistician, Department of Health & Social Care | James Wright: Senior Director, Bioscript Group

Some of the highlights from the British Data Awards 2026 ceremony

The Winners of the sixth edition of the British Data Awards are: 

Data for Good Initiative of the Year: Royal National Lifeboat Institution (Winner) | Dogs Trust (Highly Commended)

Data Transformation of the Year (organisations with 4,000+ employees), presented by Atombit: PwC UK and City of London Police (Winner) | Superdrug (Highly Commended)

Data Transformation of the Year (organisations with <4,000 employees), presented by Atombit: E.ON Next (Winner) | Solus (Highly Commended)

Agentic AI Solution of the Year, presented by Atombit: FOIL (Winner) | Exponentia.ai (Highly Commended)

Data Partnership of the Year: Met Office & Microsoft (Winner) | The Data Lab (Highly Commended)

Innovation of the Year, presented by Ekco: Aviva (Winner) | Safe Software (Highly Commended)

BI Solution of the Year: British Heart Foundation (Winner) | YourParkingSpace (Highly Commended)

Data for Good Consulting Initiative of the Year: Thermo Fisher Scientific (Winner) | Made Tech (Highly Commended)

Healthcare Organisation of the Year, presented by NixInfinity-AI: National Disease Registration Service (Winner) | Bioscript Group (Highly Commended)

Consultancy of the Year: QuantSpark (Winner) | Baringa (Highly Commended)

Data Management Solution of the Year: NatWest Group (Winner) | London Borough of Camden (Highly Commended)

Data Leader of the Year, presented by Made Tech: Rich Whitaker, Scottish Widows (Winner) | Jo Page, E.ON Next (Highly Commended)

Data Leader of the Year (Partner), presented by Made Tech: Megan Higgins, PwC UK (Winner) | Rosanne Werner, XcelerateIQ (Highly Commended)

Rising Star of the Year, presented by iO-Sphere: Gabby Walker, Black Sheep Coffee (Winner) | Jessica Dennison, UK Ministry of Defence (Highly Commended)

Rising Star of the Year (Partner), presented by iO-Sphere: Jessie Stuart, HyperFinity (Winner) | Martha Casey, Baringa (Highly Commended)

Data Team of the Year (<20 people): Department for Education (Winner) | BDO (Highly Commended)

Data Team of the Year (20+ people): Virgin Media O2 (Winner) | Greene King & Intact Insurance UK&I – both Highly Commended

Generative AI Initiative of the Year: Carwow (Winner) | Atombit (Highly Commended)

AI Company of the Year: Provenance (Winner) | Audacia (Highly Commended)

Best Place to Work in Data, presented by North Peak Consulting: Superdrug (Winner) | Aviva (Highly Commended)

Best Place to Work in Data (Partner), presented by North Peak Consulting: Bioscript Group (Winner) | Talan (Highly Commended)

Education Initiative of the Year: DataCamp (Winner) | Pol-Ed, West Yorkshire Police (Highly Commended)

Climate Change Initiative of the Year: NatWest Group (Sustainability Planner) & Octopus Energy – Joint Winners

Data Protection/Privacy Initiative of the Year: Admiral Group (Winner) | Talan & NatWest Group (Highly Commended)

Public Sector Organisation of the Year: iNetwork, Tameside Council (Winner) | West Yorkshire Violence Reduction Partnership (Highly Commended)

Not-For-Profit of the Year: Catch22 (Winner) | Research Data Scotland (Highly Commended)

Financial Services Company of the Year, presented by Atombit: Admiral Group (Winner) | Succession Wealth (Highly Commended)

Large Company of the Year: Lloyds Banking Group (Winner) | Economist Intelligence / The Economist Group (Highly Commended)

SME of the Year: Anmut (Winner) | A&A Digital Tech (Highly Commended)

Start-Up of the Year: WareBee (Winner)

Alongside announcing the Winners of each category, highlights from each of the winning entries were shared during the ceremony. We’ve shared highlights from three entries below as well as some of the key themes seen across the nominations.

Key Themes

This year it was particularly noticeable to see how many nominations focused on data literacy initiatives – it’s clear that upskilling remains a key priority for many organisations.

And with the growth (and success) of these data literacy initiatives, transformation programmes that also enable self-service analytics (and support the increased use of data across all levels) was another key theme. For entries focused on AI, the vast majority talked about how they’ve leveraged AI as an enabler, and not a replacement for human judgement. This year we also saw a surge in nominations focused on insurance and healthcare – it was exciting to see how the increased use of data across the healthcare industry is helping to improve patient outcomes.

Winning Entry Highlights

The National Disease Registration Service was awarded ‘Healthcare Organisation of the Year’ for the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Registry (launched in July 2025) – the world’s first nationally complete registry linking genomic data directly to NHS care pathways. By identifying individuals at inherited cancer risk early, NICPR enables timely surveillance and preventive interventions, shifting practice from reactive treatment to proactive prevention across England, and the blueprint developed by the team is already attracting interest from international health systems. The judges praised this “incredibly important work, with good examples of early impact.”

E.ON Next took home the ‘Data Transformation of the Year (organisations with <4,000 employees)’ award for building a trusted and scalable data ecosystem in Databricks that empowers a data driven culture and has also delivered a competitive edge, with the judges praising a “well-evidenced and inspiring” entry. The impact delivered by this transformation is wide-ranging and spans customer energy management, debt management, financial planning and more. The foundations delivered mean that E.0N Next can focus on delivering their intelligence layer – a suite of ML models incorporating real-time data to drive Next Best Action and hyper personalisation in the app.

The ‘Data Transformation of the Year (organisations with 4,000+ employees)’ trophy was awarded to PwC UK & City of London Police which was described as “the standout entry in this section, combining exceptional public value, hard evidence of impact, and a highly compelling narrative.” With cybercrime and fraud accounting for approx. 50% of all UK crime, City of London Police’s Report Fraud service, delivered with PwC over two and a half years, has transformed the UK’s national fraud and cybercrime reporting and intelligence capability by replacing legacy, manual processes with a secure victim-centric, omnichannel platform and modern data operating model. The impact of this transformation is significant, for example, Crime & Intelligence now instantly prioritise new reports (previously up to a week).

All roads lead to 2027!

While it’s only been a few hours since we announced our 2026 winners, we already have one eye on the seventh edition of the British Data Awards. If you’d like to stay up to date with our plans, please follow us on LinkedIn for a regular stream of updates!