Innovation in Action: Clusters and Spin-offs

The Experience of the European Social Survey

Eric Harrison

Deputy Director, European Social Survey

RICH Symposium

Lisbon, May 2017

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

What is the European Social Survey?

Biennial cross-national survey of the general

population since 2001

Interviews 1500-2000 respondents face-to-face

Data is deposited and archived within 12 months

Access is non-privileged and free for non-

commercial use

Employs high standards of rigour in sampling,

translation, questionnaire design and dissemination

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

1. Clusters

2. Spin-offs (Impact)

4This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

A programme of knowledge exchange,

transfer and fusion between 2015 and 2019

SERISS:

A Social Science Cluster for

Consolidation and Innovation

5This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

A collaboration between:

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

• European Social Survey (ESS ERIC)

• Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE ERIC)

• Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA AS)

• Generations and Gender Programme (GGP)

• European Values Study

• WageIndicator Survey

6This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

Clusters and Spin-offs: Challenges

Alignment and Synchronisation

Superimpose innovation and experimentation on multiple

operational cycles

Not all knowledge transfers!

Projects are unique: a cluster can become a crush

Not so much ‘spin-offs’ as ‘captured satellites’

Limited central research, teaching and policy material –

very bottom up

Difficult to monetize data for non-commercial use!

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

Innovation and Impact: Challenges

Innovation is expensive. It is also slow.

Proof of concept

Feasibility studies

Piloting

Roll out, adoption

Blueprint for European Social Survey from mid 90s

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

Innovation and Impact: Challenges

Impact is expensive. It is also slow.

Policy challenge – identify topic

Open competition for survey time

Design, data collection and delivery

Dissemination in right form to right people

Possible policy interventions

Possible benefits evaluated

Why were we interested in this again?

How to think about ESS impact…

10

ESS data

IntermediariesNon academic dissemination

Academic dissemination

Outputs

ESS data use ResearchNew

knowledge gained

Policy/practice development

Research users

Teaching impact

Academic impact

Non-academic impact

The linear model:

National coordination (Additional framework conditions!)

Linear stories exist, but there is also a systemic level!

ESS data

Framework conditions

Data source grows richer

over time

ESS use

National coordination

Long-term sustained funding

Consistent involvement of countries

Funders

Promotion/ publicity

Increasing number of countries

Teaching impact

Academic impact

Non-academic impact

Can be users!

By academics

Generational effectUse in

subsequent careers

Use in gov’t / ministry reports & monitoring

‘Translation’-ESS Topline-Intermediaries-Other simplifying or data presentation-News & print media

Political/ policy / public

debate

By non-academics

Research

Outputs

Students

Mo

re f

ram

ewo

rk c

on

dit

ion

s: E

vid

ence

-b

ase

d p

oli

cym

ak

ing

; q

ua

nti

tati

ve

tra

dit

ion

s in

so

cia

l sc

ien

ce;

imp

act

ag

end

a, e

tc.

12This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

The Impact of Outputs

• Landmark research infrastructures with track records of policy engagement:

• ESS data helped develop EU indicators of public confidence in justice

• SHARE used by multiple DGs for policy development and expenditure prediction

• CESSDA influences national data strategies and sets the benchmarks for cross-national data use

13This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

And The Impact of Inputs…

ESS employment CST 30

NCs 25 x3 = 75Survey agency 25 x 5Interviewers 25 x 50-

100

SHARE employmentHQ 40

Countries 80Programming and

survey 25Interviewers 2000CESSDA

14 data archives employ upwards of

450

14This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

In other words…

• In the region of 5000 persons – per round

• And because of labour turnover much higher number of individuals

• Then add in academics and students on courses using ESS/SHARE or any CESSDA-archived data

• 103,000 registered users of ESS alone

15This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020

research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 654221.

www.seriss.eu

@SERISS_EU

A Final Thought

• In social sciences, people are the data…

• Add ESS interviewees (350k)

• + SHARE panel (123k)

• Close to half a million Europeans touched by social science ERICs

Thanks for the invitation.

Awaiting your questions.

More at

www.europeansocialsurvey.org

On Twitter @ESS_Survey