CESSDA (Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives) is an umbrella organization of the European Social Science Data Archives that was established in 1976. In 2013 it has transformed into a European scientific infrastructure unit (ERIC) based on the list of European priorities ESFRI (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures).

CESSDA offers professional assistance to its members, whereas simultaneously giving access to data from European data archives to users. CESSDA is based on mutual professional and organizational support. Its goal is to preserve and disseminate quality research data, regardless of geographic location of users and by following contemporary international standards, recommendations and tools.  

In The CESSDA Strategy 2023–2027 outlines three strategic themes, each with a specific priority:

• DATA – Enhancing Metadata and Data Interoperability
• PEOPLE – Fostering Connections
• LANDSCAPE – Shaping the European Research Landscape

These are supported by CESSDA’s core values:

• Building on TRUST

• Renowned for TRAINING

• Expanding through WIDENING & OUTREACH

• Proficient in TECHNOLOGY

• User-friendly TOOLS & SERVICES

CESSDA fosters trust in social science research by ensuring high-quality data is preserved for future research. As trusted repositories, CESSDA Service Providers demonstrate their reliability to researchers and research funders alike.

CESSDA supports ongoing learning and training for its Service Provider staff, the social science user community and partners. Learning, Training and Widening activities coverresearch data management, data discovery and reuse, digital preservation, data archiving, and CESSDA tools and services.

Technology underpins CESSDA’s technical infrastructure, providing a stable and up-to-date foundation for our platforms and user-friendly tools and services, making it easy to deposit and access data.

ADP has been a CESSDA member since 1998. One of the many advantages of cooperation at European level is the standardised development of services that enable and promote the internationalisation of social science data. The CESSDA Data Catalogue, which includes research descriptions from the national collections of the consortium member countries, is one of them. The CESSDA Data Management Expert Guide training tool and its Research Data Management Plan form provide an opportunity to cooperate more effectively in an increasingly integrated European research area. The CESSDA Data Archiving Guide, which has been produced by the European social science data archives to help with the induction of new data archivists, serves a similar function.