Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic

This project arises as a direct result of the Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) Research Infrastructure (RI) being identified by ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures) Roadmap exercise as an existing pan-European RI recommended for a major upgrade (European Roadmap for Research Infrastructures, Report 2006). This project is in response to a FP7 call specifically targeted at providing a preparatory phase for RIs recognised within the ESFRI Roadmap process.

The central task of this project is therefore to prepare the CESSDA RI for a major upgrade in order to ensure that European social science and humanities (SSH) researchers have access to, and gain support for, data resources they require to conduct research of the highest quality, irrespective of the location of either researcher or data within the European Research Area (ERA). Despite being a mature network, existing for 30 years, CESSDA continues to suffer from a number of weaknesses which act to limit its effectiveness and range of activities. This project consists of several interlinked yet individually focused work packages (WPs) which collectively are aimed at tackling and resolving a number of strategic, financial and legal impediments, prior to further development of the RI, together with a single technical WP, which aims at producing various prototypes prior to implementation.

In addressing these concerns, the planned upgrade will develop CESSDA from the current situation in which the member organisations work with limited national resources, to create a common platform, sharing a common mission, with a stronger form of integration in which expertise is genuinely pooled, shared and applied in a co-ordinated pan-European experience. This will facilitate the delivery of a fully-integrated data archive infrastructure for the SSH, allowing seamless, permanent access to as many data holdings across Europe as possible.

In summary, an upgraded CESSDA RI will achieve the following objectives:

• to promote the CESSDA member organisations as places of deposit for publicly funded data collections;
• provide a one-stop shop for data location, access, analysis and delivery across the SSH community of Europe;
• increase the quality of data available;
• create a more dynamic knowledge management oriented Web;
• the production of Best Practice Guidelines for CESSDA members;
• the production of signature-ready documents for CESSDA-related IPR;
• to extend the CESSDA network.

Participants:

UK Data Archive, University of Essex (UKDA, United Kingdom); Finnish Social Science Data Archive (FSD, Finland), University of Tampere; National Centre for Social Research (EKKE, Greece); Swiss information and data archive service for the social sciences (FORS, Switzerland); Social Studies Archive, Centre for Social Investigation (ARCES/CIS, Spain); TÁRKI (Hungary); Social Science Data Archive, University of Ljubljana (ADP, Slovenia); Norwegian Social Science Data Services (NSD, Norway); Romanian Social Data Archive, University of Bucharest (RODA, Romania); Data Archive for Social Sciences, University of Milan (ADPSS, Italy); German Social Science Infrastructure Services (GESIS, Germany); Danish Data Archives, Danish State Archives (DDA, Denmark); National Centre for Scientific Research - Réseau Quetelet (CNRS-RQ, France); Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS, Netherland); Vienna Institute for Sociological Documentation and Methodology (WISDOM, Austria); Database Infrastructure Committee, Swedish Research Council (DISC, Sweden)

References:

• Sociological Data Archive (SDA): http://archiv.soc.cas.cz
• Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA): http://www.cessda.org
• European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures: http://www.cordis.lu/esfri
• ESFRI Roadmap: ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/esfri/docs/esfri-roadmap-report-26092006_en.pdf
• OECD and EU Declaration on Access to Research Data from Public Funding: http://www.oecd.org/document/0,2340,en_2649_34487_25998799_1_1_1_1,00.html

Coordination in Czechia: Jindřich Krejčí (Sociological Data Archive SOÚ AV CR)
International coordination: Prof. Kevin Schürer (UK Data Archive, University of Essex, The United Kingdom)