ESRA 2025 Preliminary Program

Monday 14 July    Tuesday 15 July    Wednesday 16 July    Thursday 17 July    Friday 18 July   

All time references are in CEST

Exploring Organizational Structures in Survey Infrastructures
Session Organisers	Dr Olga Grunwald (NIDI) Dr Roman Auriga (LIfBi) Mr Niccolo Ghirelli (ESS HQ (City St George's, University of London)) Mrs Victoria Salinero-Bevins (ESS HQ (City St George's, University of London))
Time	Tuesday 15 July, 13:30 - 15:00
Room	Ruppert 002

The organization of survey infrastructures plays a critical role in shaping the effectiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of data collection efforts. However, there is no one-size-fits-all model. Each survey infrastructure has unique processes for task division and work distribution, influenced by their history, mission, scale, and operational goals. Understanding these variations is key for fostering collaboration, improving communication, and optimizing workflows across infrastructures.

This session invites presentations from survey infrastructures to share insights into their organizational structures. It will provide a platform for survey professionals to explain how their operations are divided, why they have adopted specific task allocation strategies, and how these structures impact their ability to deliver high-quality data. Speakers are encouraged to reflect on both the benefits and challenges of their organizational models.

Through comparative discussions, the session aims to uncover commonalities and differences in how survey infrastructures approach task bundling, specialization versus generalization, and outsourcing versus in-house operations. Additionally, this session seeks to spotlight infrastructure work as a legitimate and valuable career path in its own right. Often overlooked in favor of more traditional academic roles, infrastructure work encompasses specialized skills and essential contributions to the research process. By understanding and showcasing the diverse roles within survey infrastructures, the session aims to elevate the visibility of infrastructure careers and inspire professionals to see the potential for long-term growth and expertise in this field.

We encourage contributions from survey infrastructures of all sizes and specializations to foster a diverse and enriching dialogue.

Keywords: survey infrastructure, survey practice, organizational models

Papers

Centralized management and quality control in the ESENER Survey: reducing Total Survey Error across 30 European countries

Mrs Kim De Cuyper (Ipsos)
Mrs Sara Gysen (Ipsos) - Presenting Author

This presentation examines the centralized management strategies and workflows implemented in the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks (ESENER), coordinated by Ipsos European Public Affairs (EPA) across 30 European countries. Drawing from extensive field experience, the presentation will showcase a comprehensive framework for maintaining data quality and comparability across diverse national settings.

Key elements of our centralized approach include:
• Establishment of a highly specialized central team that is also responsible for selecting experienced field agencies.
• Highly centralized survey management strategy with the central, team overseeing all critical aspects such as sampling, scripting, translation, briefing, call design, field monitoring, and quality control, while remaining receptive to local input and regional nuances.
• Meticulous sample frame selection, sample monitoring and release during fieldwork, with additional screening and enrichment during fieldwork to ensure comprehensive representation.
• Multi-mode data collection strategy, incorporating telephone and online methods to maximize participation and address changing respondent preferences.
• In-depth briefing of local supervisors and project managers through a two-day in-person seminar and detailed materials.
• Robust communication systems, including daily detailed field reports, a secure central document exchange platform, and targeted personal contact with local teams.
• A three-step questionnaire refinement approach to ensure cross-country comparability: translatability assessment, cognitive testing, and piloting.
• Continuous fieldwork monitoring for progress, achieved sample composition, and data quality, utilizing various metrics and comparative analysis with previous survey rounds and across modes.

We will discuss how these strategies have helped maintain data quality and comparability while adapting to new technologies and shifting respondent behaviors. Our experience demonstrates the effectiveness of centralized management in standardizing methodological updates across diverse national settings, ultimately contributing to the reduction of Total Survey Error in large-scale, cross-national surveys. By sharing these strategies, the session aims to provide actionable insights for survey practitioners

Managing the Transition to Multi-Mode Surveys: Insights from the European Social Survey Round 12

Mr Niccolo Ghirelli (European Social Survey HQ (City St George's, University of London)) - Presenting Author

The European Social Survey (ESS) Round 12 marks a pivotal shift in survey methodology, transitioning from traditional face-to-face data collection to a hybrid self-completion approach using web and paper formats.

This abstract highlights the comprehensive restructuring of the ESS workflows and milestones to ensure successful implementation across about 30 participating countries; with particular attention to the changes in the Country Contacts roles to manage and monitor more complex survey activities related to the different data collection modes in the assigned countries while maintaining consistency with the ESS Methodological Specification.

Key areas of focus include the coordination of multi-stakeholder communication, adherence to GDPR compliance, and the systematic deployment of sampling and questionnaire preparation protocols. For self-completion, the ESS Core Scientific Team (CST) needs to ensure meticulous translation workflows, pre-testing, and robust data collection monitoring through digital platforms. The central coordination has a fundamental role in this matter as the self-completion data collection is to be carried out with the same platform centrally set by Centerdata (CST member).

Special attention is given to mitigating country-specific challenges, such as adapting materials for national contexts and ensuring the funding is adequate and well-used. To ensure this, several discussion and review steps between the CST and the National Tam have been introduced in ESS Round 12.

Finally, greater importance than in previous Rounds is given to transparent reporting and post-survey debriefs to enhance quality assurance and inform future rounds. By fostering collaboration between National Coordinators, survey agencies, and the ESS Core Scientific Team, ESS HQ aims for operational excellence in cross-national survey research.

The paper will discuss the challenges, innovations, and lessons learned during the ongoing implementation of ESS Round 12, offering insights into managing large surveys and their operational workflows.

The development of European Values Study in the European Research Infrastructure contexta

Professor Ruud Luijkx (European Values Study/Tilburg University) - Presenting Author

The European Values Study (EVS, www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu ) is a large-scale, cross-national, repeated cross-sectional survey research program on basic human values. It provides insights into the ideas, beliefs, preferences, attitudes, values and opinions of citizens all over Europe. It is a longstanding research infrastructure starting in 1980. Its primary goal is to conduct a pan-European survey every nine years. The next wave will be undertaken in 2026, earlier waves were in 1981, 1990, 1999, 2008, and 2017 in an increasing number of countries. Over the years EVS grew from a small organization mainly run from Tilburg University and the University of Leuven in the 1980s into an organization based on the cooperation between the National Program Directors from about 40 European countries at the moment.

The development in survey methodology over the years towards web-surveys, standardization of survey processes, harmonization of variables and classifications required more collaboration between research infrastructures. Also increasing costs to do (face-to-face) surveys asked for more collaboration and efficiency. This was (partly) achieved through cooperation in European projects, such as SERISS, SSHOC, SUSTAIN and Infra4NextGen.

For EVS, also the close cooperation with the World Values Survey is of great importance. In this way an efficient division in the global fieldwork could be established.

The big challenge for the (near) future is to develop a structure to cooperate closely between the survey infrastructures while retaining the own identities. This puts a pressure on the national roadmaps that are under development in many (European) countries as well as on the European level (ESFRI).

In this presentation, I will give a short overview of the development of the organizational structure of EVS and the ideas about further organizational differentiation and integration between the survey infrastructures.

Growing Up In Digital Europe (GUIDE): Shaping a European Research Infrastructure

Miss Tara Poole (Manchester Metropolitan University) - Presenting Author
Mr Gary Pollock (Manchester Metropolitan University)

Growing Up In Digital Europe (GUIDE) is uniquely positioned within the ecosystem of social science research infrastructures as a research infrastructure in its infancy. With an emerging research consortium and a plan to fill a significant gap in comparable and longitudinal child wellbeing data, GUIDE will contribute to a life course observatory of data across Europe.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the processes and strategies taken to develop GUIDE as a sustainable international research infrastructure (RI). The paper discusses the development of GUIDE from an EU funded feasibility study towards its current ESFRI Roadmap status. It identifies the operational and governance structures that underpin GUIDE and how these were developed and are maintained.

In a world where high quality data is in demand and the process of becoming a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) is increasingly competitive, GUIDE has worked closely with and benefitted from the other ESFRI recognised survey RIs (SHARE ESS GGP) in developing its operational and strategic plan.
This paper explores GUIDE’s position within the broader RI ecosystem and analyse how collaboration with developing and established RIs across all scientific disciplines will contribute to its future success.

The development of high-quality international survey data infrastructure is crucial to the broad social science community who have a collective interest in it being provided. The complexity of working to achieve such data infrastructure is, however, not well understood and requires substantial engagement with national and international legal, political and funding processes. The ongoing development of the ESFRI roadmap process has helped to nurture nascent RIs but there remain significant challenges for GUIDE as it moves towards its implementation phase.

HEalth, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden – HEARTS

Dr Isabelle Hansson (University of Gothenburg, Department of Psychology) - Presenting Author

The HEalth, Aging and Retirement Transitions in Sweden (HEARTS) study is a longitudinal population-based cohort study designed to shed light on psychological aspects of the retirement process. The study started in 2015 and includes 5,913 individuals born between 1949 and 1955. The participants have been followed annually with the aim of capturing individual development before, during, and after transitioning to retirement. Currently, nine waves of data collection have been completed, covering the age interval from 60 to 74. Data is mainly collected using a web-based survey, supplemented by a paper-pencil format for those reluctant to complete the survey online. A central assumption in HEARTS is that the retirement process cannot be properly characterized in terms of universal trends. Instead, the retirement transition is seen as a heterogeneous process in which multiple factors interact and shape how individuals experience and adjust to changes associated with the transition. The survey encompasses data on socio-demographics, work and retirement status, reasons for retirement, expectations and experiences related to retirement, physical and cognitive health, lifestyle, well-being, personality, and social networks, as well as questions related to working life, such as occupational characteristics, employment conditions, job demands, and work motivation. The survey data is further supplemented with data from national registries. Together, the longitudinal design and extensive survey and registry data generate a strong empirical ground for advancing knowledge on the retirement process and the factors contributing to continuity and change in psychological health in the years before and following retirement. In this presentation, I will share insights and experiences from our work with the HEARTS study. The talk will include reflections on organizational procedures for data collection and data management, as well as benefits and challenges in implementing a longitudinal survey design.

The Bundesbank Research Centre’s Surveys of Households and Firms

Mr Tobias Schmidt (Deutsche Bundesbank) - Presenting Author

The Research Centre of the Bundesbank regularly surveys households and firms in Germany. The preparation for the Bundesbank’s face-to-face wealth survey (PHF) started already in 2006, with survey waves of about 4000 households in 2010, 2014, 2017, 2021 and 2023. In 2020 two high-frequency online surveys of households’ (BOP-HH) and firms’ (BOP-F) expectations started, with monthly net sample sizes of about 3500. The research centre is responsible for coordinating the surveys, which includes designing the questionnaires and deciding on the survey methodology as well as processing and analysing the data. The actual data collection and sampling (household surveys) has been outsourced to survey companies. The Research Data and Service Centre is responsible for the anonymization of the micro-data and organising data access. They are also directly involved in several design decisions and the sampling regarding the BOP-F. Currently 16 people work on the three surveys in the research centre directly, 9 researchers and 8 research assistants. The research assistants spent almost all their time on the survey projects. For the researchers the situation is different depending on the specific survey: The researchers on the PHF-Team spend about 30% on the PHF project and 70% on research. These shares materialize over one survey-cycle of three years. Everyone on the team is responsible for a specific part of the data processing, analysis and reporting. For the high-frequency surveys, the set-up is different. Given that about half of the questionnaire changes every month (BOP-HH) or quarter (BOP-F) and new questions/proposals need to be coordinated, one researcher is mainly coordinating the monthly survey. The survey teams provide an opportunity to further ones skills in survey methodology and data analysis. The main challenges are to balance research and data work.