KDK staff members Júlia Egyed-Gergely, Anna Horváth, and Enikő Meiszterics celebrated CESSDA’s 50th anniversary alongside members of the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) during the CESSDA 50th Anniversary Conference. The consortium held the week-long anniversary conference in Bergen, Norway – where CESSDA was founded and where its headquarters are located. Since 1976, the organization has brought together major European social science archives, making it one of the most significant social science ERICs today.

The conference was titled “Future-Ready Social Science: Data, Policy, and Impact.” The series of events focused on CESSDA’s vision, a look back at the scientific impact achieved over the past 50 years, as well as new challenges and dialogue and collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and borders. During the first two days of the conference, CESSDA members discussed and addressed the most pressing issues and challenges in closed-door workshops. The second two days featured presentations and discussions open to the general public, organized around the themes of Landscape, Data, and People.

During the highly engaging, interesting, and informative presentations, we heard, among other topics, about the classics – the FAIR, CARE, and TRUST principles – and in particular about the insufficient emphasis placed on the CARE principles in Europe – all from entirely new perspectives. Of course, special emphasis was placed on the rise of artificial intelligence, as well as its impact on the aforementioned principles, and consequently, the question of their possible redefinition. In light of the accelerating spread of AI, there was consensus among the speakers that heightened awareness and collaboration – both in terms of infrastructure and human resources – are needed to address the challenges, for example, in the areas of cybersecurity, training, and knowledge sharing.

Several presentations highlighted the importance of collaboration and “working hand in hand” between developers and data stewards—who play a crucial role in managing research data—as well as the importance of continuous two-way communication and mutual understanding of each other’s terminology. In the latter case, the speakers emphasized the need for both groups to gain some familiarity with each other’s work—developers must learn the basics of data management, and data stewardas must familiarize themselves with the technical fundamentals. All of this requires continuous learning, curiosity, and “investment” not only in infrastructure but also in the “human side.” As noted, research infrastructures consist of many components, and one important component is “people” themselves.

In addition, there was discussion of the tremendous development and progress made over the past ten years (specialization, the emergence of data curators, data librarians and data stewards, the development of curricula, training programs, and courses in the field, the emergence and widespread adoption of data management plans, and the availability of grants and funding…), as well as the challenges that lie ahead in this field (reliable knowledge, tangible guidelines, sufficient human and financial resources...).

A separate session at the conference addressed the situation in regions outside Europe and potential solutions, ranging from the highly topical and critical issue of data preservation in the United States to the DataFirst repository – which collects reliable research data from more than 50 countries – operating in South Africa, and the UN’s repository that collects humanitarian data and thereby assists entire segments of society, to the South Korean KOSSDA data repository, which boasts over 16,000 publications.

We extend our deepest gratitude to CESSDA and the CESSDA community for this fantastic conference, for the past 50 years, and for the CESSDA community, which continues to move forward unwaveringly with a strong sense of unity and vision. It was inspiring and uplifting to see the unity, shared vision, open-mindedness, and collaboration among representatives of the leading social science institutions from various countries as they worked together toward a common mission.

Thank you for the fruitful discussions, and happy anniversary, CESSDA!

 

 

Thumbnail: CESSDA

Images: Júlia Egyed-Gergely (CSS), Einar Tobias Grude (CESSDA)