Ways Forward: Social Science Research Data Infrastructures in Europe |
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| Coordinator 1 | Professor Christof Wolf (GESIS Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences & KonsortSWD) |
| Coordinator 2 | Professor Daniel Oberski (Utrecht University & ODISSEI) |
| Coordinator 3 | Professor Nicolas Sauger (Sciences Po & Prodego) |
| Coordinator 4 | Mikael Hjerm (Umeå University & CORS) |
Research data infrastructures (RDIs) for the social sciences have substantially developed over the last decades and have become indispensable for social research. RDIs include survey programs, such as ESS, EVS, ISSP, WVS, but go beyond these: RDIs support researchers through all phases of the research data lifecycle. Writing data management plans, selecting measurement instruments, providing tools for data collection or for coding open-ended questions, data archiving, etc. In several countries initiatives are aiming at bundling RDIs for social research, such as KonsortSWD (DE), ODISSEI (NL), Prodego (FR), CORS (SE). Yet, the field of RDIs faces several challenges, for example:
How can RDIs cooperate across national borders and develop European perspectives? Currently the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) is assembling national and thematic nodes. Are they a way forward? National RDIs, targeting mostly national researchers, do not focus on exchange and learning across borders. Therefore, we lack the ability to develop best practice or set standards. Social science data archives are one exception: they have networked for almost five decades and now operate CESSDA ERIC – organizing possibilities for exchange and discussing standards and speak with one voice vis-a-vis funders like the European commission.
How can RDIs support and incubate innovative initiatives at the local/national level and leverage them to develop international standards?
(How) can AI help RDIs to be more productive, to (semi-)automate services that still consist mainly of manual tasks?
How can RDIs be funded sustainably? Funding of RDIs is often organized similarly to research projects, i.e., funds are only granted for a very limited period. Additionally, funding is often not sufficient because reviewers (and sometimes applicants) have difficulties validly estimating necessary effort to operate a RDIs.
We invite contributions addressing these and related questions, including success stories of implementing or operating RDIs.