All time references are in CEST
Exploring Organizational Structures in Survey Infrastructures |
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| Session Organisers | Dr Olga Grunwald (NIDI) Dr Roman Auriga (LIfBi) |
| Time | Tuesday 18 July, 09:00 - 10:30 |
| Room | |
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
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.
Mr Florian Griese (German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin) - Presenting Author
Professor Sabine Zinn (German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin)
Dr Christian Hunkler (Humboldt University Berlin)
The design and implementation of panel studies follow recurring processes often visualized as a Survey Life Cycle, which organizes survey tasks into distinct, sequential steps. While effective for single waves or cross-sectional surveys, this framework falls short when managing overlapping waves in longitudinal studies. To address this, we propose the Panel Survey Life Spirals, a framework capturing the dynamic and interconnected nature of successive survey waves.
The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), one of the world’s longest-running household surveys, highlights the challenges of overlapping waves. With extended fieldwork and a complex dataset, the SOEP team simultaneously works on multiple waves at different stages. For instance, in winter, the team prepares the wave for two years ahead, plans next year’s data collection, releases the current year’s data, and delivers training on the latest released wave. This overlapping workflow creates significant interdependencies between waves.
The Panel Survey Life Spirals framework enhances the traditional life cycle by addressing the overlapping, iterative, and interdependent nature of longitudinal surveys. It emphasizes:
- Interwave Dependencies: Critical stages, like sample definition, depend on timely completion of earlier waves.
- Continuous Learning: Lessons from prior waves improve quality and efficiency.
- Dynamic Chronology: The spiral visualizes multiple waves at various stages.
This paper outlines SOEP’s processes within the spiral framework, emphasizing their chronological positioning and role in ensuring data quality. By adopting the Panel Survey Life Spirals, researchers can address unique challenges in longitudinal studies and adapt their workflows.
As societal change accelerates and demand for reliable data grows, the Panel Survey Life Spirals offer a flexible yet standardized guideline for managing complex survey processes and producing high-quality data to meet evolving needs.
Ms Magdalena Hecher (SHARE BERLIN Institute) - Presenting Author
Dr Michael Bergmann (SHARE BERLIN Institute)
Dr Stefan Gruber (SHARE BERLIN Institute)
Mrs Theresa Fabel (SHARE BERLIN Institute)
Ms Stephanie Stuck (SHARE BERLIN Institute)
The Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) is a research infrastructure whose central coordination is located at the SHARE Berlin Institute (SBI) and which oversees 28 country teams in Europe and Israel. This requires a well-harmonized organization, also considering the 38 national languages that need a straightforward concept, e.g. for trainings and fieldwork material. Experience and path-dependency have led to a structure where fieldwork instrument programming is outsourced and cooperation with the SHARE Central development teams is organized in an agile project management style. The infrastructure organization is embedded in a complex legal framework of different boards and partner institutions, which make decisions on some aspects and provide room for others. This presentation aims to introduce the organizational structure from the perspective of the central coordination and elaborate on the benefits but also challenges of the current structure as well as future plans. It also aims to provide a broad overview of the different skills that employees must meet, exemplary career paths within the organization and the challenge of combining research and infrastructure tasks.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Dr Roman Auriga (Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories) - Presenting Author
In the presentation, I will discuss different survey management structures based on the solutions developed at the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) in Bamberg, Germany. There are two basic options for implementing survey management at LIfBi. One involves the integration of a study management center-a central department at the institute. In this model, project management and the management of survey content are located differently. In the other model, both areas are concentrated in more or less one work unit. I will discuss the rationale for this division and its consequences for knowledge management. I will also show the range of flexibility in terms of management in both models implemented at LIfBi.
Dr Janine Bernhardt (German Youth Institute (DJI)) - Presenting Author
Dr Andreas Herz (German Youth Institute (DJI))
Dr Anja Linberg (German Youth Institute (DJI))
Dr Susanne Ulrich (German Youth Institute (DJI))
Professor Susanne Kuger (German Youth Institute (DJI))
The longitudinal study "Growing up in Germany (in German: AID:A)" explores the multifaceted contexts and relationships shaping childhood, youth, and transitions to adulthood. Drawing on a nationwide probability sample of individuals aged 0 to 32, the study provides valuable insights for social reporting and research on well-being. Its interdisciplinary and multidimensional framework captures various aspects of individual and family life. AID:A employs a multi-actor design and integrates often-overlooked voices such as those of young children, children from disadvantaged families, and separated families.
This presentation offers an in-depth look at the organizational structure, academic roles, and survey management processes underpinning AID:A, conducted by the German Youth Institute (DJI). The study employs a matrix organization to bundle thematic and methodological expertise in so-called competence teams. Each team consists of members of the DJI’s thematic departments (children, youth/transitions, families/adults) and one pairing member of the methods department serving as the team head. The team heads constitute an interface within and between the departments, which ensures survey quality and efficient processes by linking the scientific study board, item developers, data managers, the research data center, consulting services, and data users. In close collaboration with the principal investigator, the team heads are also the drivers of the survey’s strategic and operational hub, handling study planning, survey design, fieldwork coordination, data management, data documentation, and public outreach.
After introducing the model of matrix collaboration in AID:A, the presentation reflects on the advantages and challenges of this organizational model for communication and decision-making processes. We also discuss the challenges for the team heads managing diverse interests and temporal bottlenecks and offer brief insights into tools we developed for our task management, resource allocation, and item-collection synthesis.
Dr Olga Grünwald (GGP Central Coordination Team, NIDI) - Presenting Author
The Generations and Gender Programme (GGP) is an international survey infrastructure dedicated to collecting and disseminating cross-nationally comparable data on family and life-course dynamics. At the core of its operations is the GGP Central Coordination Team (GGP-CCT), which plays a pivotal role throughout the survey data lifecycle.
The GGP-CCT’s responsibilities begin with engaging countries to participate in the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) by connecting with relevant stakeholders and supporting funding efforts. Once countries secure funding for running the GGS, the GGP-CCT provides national teams with templates, methodological guidance, and survey instruments programmed in Blaise. During the pre-fieldwork phase, it oversees quality assurance for questionnaire translations, assists with sampling strategies, and ensures that the survey instrument meets technical requirements. In the fieldwork phase, the GGP-CCT monitors progress, addresses emerging challenges, and ensures adherence to methodological standards. Post-fieldwork, the GGP-CCT leads data processing and documentation, including cleaning, harmonization, and preparing datasets for dissemination.
The success of the GGP lies in the clear division of responsibilities between the GGP-CCT and national teams, fostering collaboration across all stages of the survey lifecycle. However, the relatively small size of the GGP-CCT requires team members to take on multiple roles while maintaining their core responsibilities. To address the growing demands of large-scale international survey projects, the GGP-CCT is currently identifying gaps in its operational structure to better align its resources with the needs of national teams and data users.
This presentation will explore the GGP-CCT’s strategies for coordinating tasks across the survey lifecycle, both within the GGP-CCT and in collaboration with national teams. It will also reflect on the balance between specialization and generalization in task allocation and the challenges of centralized coordination.