STICHTING CENTERDATA

Their core work

CentERdata is a Tilburg-based research data center specializing in web-based survey infrastructure and large-scale panel data collection for the social sciences. They build and operate the technical backbone behind major European cross-national surveys such as SHARE (Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe) and the European Social Survey. Their core competence is designing, hosting, and managing online questionnaire platforms that enable researchers across dozens of countries to collect harmonized population data on health, economics, and social attitudes. They also contribute to making social science research data FAIR-compliant and accessible through open science cloud infrastructure.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the early period (2015–2019), CentERdata was deeply embedded in building and standardizing European research infrastructures — contributing to SHARE's technical development and the SERISS project on social science infrastructure, while beginning work on open science and FAIR data through SSHOC. From 2019 onward, their focus shifted toward the content and application of these surveys: cross-national health studies, COVID-19 impact assessment, European values tracking, and cohort research networks (COORDINATE). The trend shows a move from building survey infrastructure to actively deploying it for policy-relevant population research.

CentERdata is evolving from a pure technical survey platform provider toward a more integrated role in population health and social cohort research, making them increasingly relevant for projects needing rapid, multi-country data collection capability.

How they like to work

CentERdata never coordinates — they join as a participant or third party, providing specialized technical infrastructure that other partners rely on for data collection. With 100 unique partners across 27 countries, they are a well-connected hub in the European social science research ecosystem, though their connections flow through a few large recurring survey families (SHARE, ESS) rather than diverse independent projects. Working with them means gaining access to proven, production-grade survey infrastructure and a network of national survey teams across Europe.

Extensive European network of 100 unique partners across 27 countries, built primarily through the SHARE and ESS survey families which involve national teams in nearly every EU member state. Their geographic reach is pan-European with no strong regional bias.

What sets them apart

CentERdata occupies a rare niche: they are one of very few organizations in Europe that can deploy a multi-country, multi-language web survey panel at scale within an existing, trusted infrastructure. Unlike university departments that run one-off studies, CentERdata maintains permanent survey platforms used by thousands of researchers. For any consortium needing rapid, reliable population data collection across Europe — whether on health, economics, energy behaviour, or social attitudes — they bring operational infrastructure that would take years to build from scratch.

Highlights from their portfolio

• SSHOC
  Largest funded project (EUR 911K) — built the Social Sciences Open Cloud, positioning CentERdata at the center of Europe's FAIR data infrastructure for social sciences.
• SHARE-COVID19
  Rapid-response deployment of existing SHARE survey infrastructure to measure COVID-19's non-health impacts across Europe — demonstrates their ability to pivot infrastructure for urgent research needs.
• COORDINATE
  Most recent project (2021-2025), building a pan-European cohort research network — signals their expanding role beyond surveys into integrated research infrastructure.