Presentation given by Dr John B. Howard, University Librarian, University College Dublin Library, at the CONUL Annual Conference in Athlone, Ireland, May 30, 2017.

1. John B Howard
Irish Social Science Data Archive
University College Dublin
CONUL Conference,
Athlone, May 2017
Building a European Research Infrastructure for the
Social Sciences: The Consortium of European Social
Science Data Archives

2. Overview
• EU Context – European Strategy for Trans-national
research
• European Strategy Framework for Research
Infrastructures (ESFRI)
• European Research Infrastructure Consortia (ERIC)
• Consortium Context: CESSDA to become an ERIC in
2017
• National Context: Members, Observer & Service
Providers
• Ireland and the Irish Social Science Data Archive
(ISSDA)

3. “ESFRI RIs are facilities, resources or
services of a unique nature identified by
European research communities to
conduct top-level research activities in all
fields.”
ESFRI established in 2002
• to support a coherent and strategy-led approach to
policy making on research infrastructures in Europe;
• to establish a European Roadmap for research
infrastructures for the coming 10-20 years & stimulate
the implementation of these facilities
• to ensure the follow-up of implementation of already
ongoing ESFRI projects after a comprehensive
assessment
ESFRI Roadmap 2016

4. ESFRI Roadmaps
CESSDA and 48 other Research Infrastructures either
implemented or still on the Roadmap
http://www.esfri.eu/roadmap-2016

5. ESFRI – Project Domains
• Energy
• Environment
• Health & Food
• Physical Sciences & Engineering
• Social & Cultural Innovation
RIs are “European Research Infrastructure Consortia,” or
ERICs, which conform to a regulatory framework specified by
the European Commission (COUNCIL REGULATION (EU) No
1261/2013)

7. What is CESSDA?
The vision of CESSDA is to provide full scale sustainable research
infrastructures that enables the research community to conduct high-quality
research which in turn leads to effective solutions to the major challenges
facing society today.
The objective of CESSDA is to provide a comprehensive, distributed and
integrated social science data research infrastructure which will facilitate and
support research, teaching and learning of the highest quality throughout the
social sciences in the European Research Area.
The aim is to facilitate access to social science data resources for researchers
regardless of the location of either researcher or data within the European
Research Area (ERA), and beyond.
CESSDA Statutes /
http://cessda.net/About-
us/Documents

8. CESSDA as a Backbone for Distributed
Facilities
CESSDA means:
• Cross-European resource discovery
• Improved quality of data and metadata
• A wider selection of comparable data
• Certification of data archiving organisations
• Professional training for data archivists
• Improved mechanisms for data dissemination and analysis
• Develop and coordinate standards, protocols and professional best
practices
• And hopefully strong involvement of organisations outside Europe

9. Work Plan Tasks 2015
Funded projects:
• CESSDA Metadata Management (FSD + ADP, CASD, DDA,
GESIS, NSD, SND, UKDS ) – until April 2017
• Data Access and Dissemination Policy (UKDS, all SPs)
• Technical Framework (UKDS + NSD, DANS, SND, GESIS)
• Open Source Metadata Harvester (NSD + UKDS, FSD, SND,
DDA)
• Expert Seminar 2015 (hosted by DANS)
http://cessda.net/About-us/2015-Work-Plan

10. Work Plan Tasks 2016
1. CESSDA Product and Service Catalogue – Phase 1 Done
2. CESSDA Expert Seminar 2016 - Prague, TWG & CSDA Done
3. CESSDA Technical Framework phase 2 - Done
4. Collaboration with GESIS on CESSDA tasks:
• Training modules for “data discovery” (planned)
• PID (Persistent Identifier) Services and Training Ongoing
• Components of the Question Data Bank Ongoing
http://cessda.net/About-us/2016-Work-Plan

11. Work Plan Tasks 2016: Additional
activities
Four CESSDA Working Groups:
• CESSDA Technical Group
• CESSDA Training Group
• CESSDA Communications Group
• CESSDA Trust Support Group
http://cessda.net/About-us/CESSDA-Working-Groups

12. Work Plan Tasks 2017
• Controlled Vocabularies Manager
• CESSDA Product and Service Catalogue phase 2
• CESSDA Technical Framework phase 3
• Data Discovery Training
• Trust Support Activities
• CESSDA Metadata Management phase 2
• Euro Question Bank phase 3
• Collaborative data management module for comparative social
science researchers (ISSDA participation)
• CESSDA PID policy

13. CESSDA’s European projects
• Strengthening and widening the
European infrastructure for social
science data archives
• A cluster project aiming at tackling
important socio-economic challenges
for Europe
• Dealing with new technologies in ICT
infrastructure building for big data
management and data manipulation for
the societal challenges that Europe is
facing

14. CESSDA: Consortium Participation

15. CESSDA: Basis for Participation
• CESSDA: a permanent legal entity owned and
financed by the individual member states’ ministry of
research or a delegated institution
• Each member is represented by a national institution,
a Service Provider, designated by the member
(EU, EEA)
• Membership process various within each nation
http://cessda.net/About-us/History

16. Membership of CESSDA
http://cessda.net/National-Data-Services
15 (16) members:
1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Czech Republic
4. Denmark
5. France
6. Germany
7. Hellas
8. Netherlands
9. Norway
10. Slovenia
11. Sweden
12. Switzerland
13. UK
14. Slovak Republic (Observer)
Countries with activities aiming at
membership:
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Estonia
• Finland
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Lithuania
• Portugal
• Romania
• Serbia
• Spain

17. CESSDA Service Providers
• Operational bodies in CESSDA
• Provide services in their country and contribute to the
development of the consortium
• Important instrument for dissemination of data, tools and
knowledge in Europe
• Must fulfil obligations as stated in the CESSDA Statutes
• Service Providers’ Forum has an advisory function
• CESSDA partners or linked third parties in CESSDA SaW,
H2020 project aiming to strengthen and widen its services

18. Service Provider Case Study
Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA)

19. ISSDA, established 2002
The Irish Social Science Data Archive (ISSDA) is Ireland’s
leading centre for quantitative data acquisition, preservation,
and dissemination. Based at the Library of University College
Dublin, its mission is to ensure wide access to quantitative
datasets in the social sciences, and to advance the promotion
of international comparative studies of the Irish economy and
Irish society.

20. ISSDA, Scope of Service (1)
• National data service, funded as research infrastructure
through 3 successive PRTLI awards
• Scope: aligned to mission of similar European service
providers: anonymised survey microdata
• Official data from Central Statistics Office, mandated under
Section 34 of the Irish Statistics Act, 1993:
• Census of population
• EU-Survey on Income and Living Conditions
• Household Budget Survey
• National Travel Survey
• Quarterly National Household Survey

21. ISSDA, Scope of Service (2)
• Core longitudinal surveys
• Growing Up in Ireland
• TILDA: The Longitudinal
Study of Ageing
• Teagasc National Farm
Survey
• Wide variety of other social
surveys
• Administrative data agreed
from selected government
departments

22. Irish Pathway to CESSDA Membership
• CESSDA: Council member through 2013, observer status since
• Membership: identification of potential governmental member
• Department of Education & Skills, via the Irish Research
Council (2016)
• Identification of the national Service Provider (2016)
• Identification of governance framework, etc.
• Future assignment of Service Providers within the overall
ESFRI/ERIC framework: public tender + five-year term of
service

23. ISSDA Pathway to CESSDA recognition
• Compliance to agreed statutes
• Certification of Trust (target 2017)
• Data repository certified by DSA 2014-2017
• Compliance to Annex of CESSDA Statutes
• Participation in CESSDA SaW, EC Horizon2020 funded project
to strengthen and widen CESSDA participation (2015-2017)
• Full participation in shared infrastructures and developmental
activities (2017- )

24. ISSDA: national development agenda
• Service: support of the mission “to advance the promotion of
international comparative studies of the Irish economy and
Irish society”
• Collections: data preservation an “explicit mission”
• Collections: outstanding questions regarding scope and role
in Open Science
• Staffing:
• Administration/management
• Data services
• Outreach & education
• Technical support and systems integration

25. ISSDA: services & technical development
agenda
Services:
• Enhanced support for metadata (DDI, CESSDA
controlled vocabulary)
• Enhanced analytical support
• National outreach programme
• Technical development
• New Website and data catalogue
• HEAnet authentication services
• Exposure of metadata to CESSDA harvester
• Integration with Nesstar REST API, DropWizard,

27. —in your circle of trust.
website: www.cessda.net / twitter:
@CESSDA_Data
website: www.issda.ie/ twitter: @ISSDA