KonsortSWD – Consortium for the Social, Behavioural, Educational, and Economic Sciences

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences ; Humanities
• Term: since 2020
• Website: Homepage
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 442494171

The social, behavioural, educational, and economic sciences offer indispensable perspectives and responses to the grand societal challenges the world is facing today. In addressing these challenges, the disciplines represented in KonsortSWD work with a range of different data types. These data are typically sensitive due to legal or ethical constraints and they are frequently generated for non-scientific purposes. KonsortSWD aims to support the research data management (RDM) needs of its communities, which increasingly collaborate in multi- and interdisciplinary research projects. The (co-)applicant institutions bring their long-standing experience in operating communitydriven research data infrastructures to the NFDI. Our mission is to develop – strengthen, widen, deepen – a research data infrastructure for the study of human society. This effort is to be primarily user-driven and addresses the needs of our research communities. The core of KonsortSWD’s RDM strategy is to provide researchers and research data centres (RDCs) with the tools and services they need for managing and sharing (new) sensitive and non-sensitive data in compliance with the FAIR principles. This includes supporting sustainable RDM in all phases of the research data lifecycle and securing data accessibility with an awareness of ethical and legal aspects. KonsortSWD will increase efficiency in RDM processes by coordinating: - data producers with technical expertise to simplify sustainable RDM throughout the data lifecycle; - a growing infrastructure of currently 34 accredited RDCs with 3,940 datasets, 46,000 data users, and a staff of 285 full time-equivalents (in 2018); - the German Data Forum (RatSWD), where data users and producers jointly facilitate access to research data; - a forum for ethical reflection to support researchers and their institutions and to discuss and disseminate standards for data-driven, high quality research on human subjects up to entire societies. KonsortSWD combines a multi-stakeholder approach with transparent governance: A Steering Committee is in charge of operations, an Advisory Board with elected community representatives provides strategic feedback, and a Consortial Conference helps to disseminate KonsortSWD’s services and to collect feedback. The Task Areas (TAs) focus on: (1) Community Participation. (2) Data Access, (3) Data Production, (4) Research (Data) Ethics, and (5) Technical Solutions.

• DFG Programme: NFDI technical and methodological consortia
• Applicant Institution: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften
• Co-Applicant Institution: DIPF I Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsforschung und Bildungsinformation; Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW); Deutsches Zentrum für Hochschul- und Wissenschaftsforschung (DZHW) GmbH; Freie Universität Berlin, since 9/2023; Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, since 9/2023; Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe e.V. (LIfBi); Leibniz-Institut für Psychologie (ZPID); RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung e.V., since 9/2023; Soziologisches Forschungsinstitut (SOFI); an der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; Universität Bremen; Universität Duisburg-Essen; Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH (WZB); ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft; ifo Institut - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung; an der Universität München e. V., since 9/2023
• Participating Institution: Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge; Bundesanstalt für Arbeitsschutz und Arbeitsmedizin (BAuA); Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB); Bundeszentrale für gesundheitliche Aufklärung (BZgA); Deutsches Jugendinstitut e.V. (DJI); Deutsches Zentrum für Altersfragen (DZA); Deutsches Zentrum für Integrations- und Migrationsforschung DeZIM e.V.; Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA); Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen; Hans Böckler Foundation; Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB); der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA); Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Institut zur Qualitätsentwicklung im Bildungswesen; Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache (IDS); Leibniz-Institut für Finanzmarktforschung SAFE; Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Halle (IWH); Leibniz-Institut für ökologische Raumentwicklung (IÖR) e.V.; Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG); Max-Planck-Institut für Sozialrecht und Sozialpolitik; Robert Koch-Institut (RKI); Statistisches Bundesamt; Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft; Universität Mannheim; Universität zu Köln; ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung GmbH; eLabour e.V. - Zentrum für qualitative soziologische Forschungsdaten e.V.
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christof Wolf
• Co-Spokespersons: Professor Dr. Christian Aßmann, Ph.D.; Dr. Katarina Blask; Professor Dr. Andreas Blätte; Professor Dr. Michael Bosnjak; Dr. Philipp Breidenbach, since 9/2023; Dr. Jan Goebel, since 11/2022; Professorin Dr. Betina Hollstein; Professorin Dr. Monika Jungbauer-Gans; Dr. Katja Klemm, since 9/2023; Professor Dr. Stefan Liebig; Dr. Claudia Nießner, since 9/2023; Professor Dr. Marc Rittberger; Dr. Sandra Schaffner, since 9/2023; Professor Dr. Jürgen Schupp; Professorin Dr. Heike Solga; Professor Dr. Klaus Tochtermann; Dr. Sebastian Wichert, since 9/2023
• Participating Persons: Professorin Regina Therese Riphahn, Ph.D., from 10/2020 until 12/2020; Professorin Dr. Kerstin Schneider, since 9/2023