Centerdata joins Core Scientific Team

The European Social Survey (ESS) is delighted to announce that Centerdata has joined its core scientific team (CST) to help coordinate the survey.

Centerdata – an independent research institute based at Tilburg University (Netherlands) – will play a key role in the new ESS work programme which began last week (1 June 2023).

The organisation has a wealth of experience in developing comprehensive data collection tools for cross-national surveys, including for the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) and ESS face-to-face data collection in the past.

This experience will benefit our upcoming switch to self-completion mode, when such tools will be even more important.

We announced in May 2022 that our General Assembly has endorsed a plan to move data collection from in-person interviews to a ‘self-completion’ design, involving both web and paper self-completion questionnaires.

Centerdata will therefore develop a platform that will centralise online data collection for use across all ESS countries to help improve efficiency and data quality.

Their tools will also facilitate a centralised implementation of the ESS paper self-completion questionnaire.

Centerdata becomes the eighth institute to form the CST, alongside City, University of London (UK), GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Germany), Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research (Norway), SCP – The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Netherlands), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain), University of Essex (UK) and University of Ljubljana (Slovenia).

Professor Rory Fitzgerald, Director of the ESS, said:

“I am delighted that Centerdata are joining the Core Scientific Team of the ESS.

“As we move from being a face-to-face survey to a self-completion one, the need for centralised tools and instruments for data collection becomes even more important.

“Centerdata has an excellent track record in developing such tools and a clear expertise in the additional complications of servicing large scale cross-national surveys.

“I look forward to working with Centerdata to make our mode transition a success.”

Professor Marcel Das, Director of Centerdata, added:

“We at Centerdata feel very privileged to become a member of the ESS Core Scientific Team.

“We have been developing survey tools for more than two decades and are thrilled to service the ESS in the near future with our experience and applications.

By becoming a CST member, we are at the heart of ESS and are delighted to contribute to its success.”