Background
The European Social Survey (ESS) has its origins in the ESF programme The Blueprint for a European Social Survey . This programme enabled the development of the project, resulting in the ESS as we now know it - a multi-country survey, with each Round spanning a two-year period, from development of the questionnaire through to publication of its data, data which is freely accessible to all.
The central funding for the ESS comes from the Framework Programme of the European Commission and national survey costs are covered by the national funding agency or agencies involved. In the aim of encouraging and developing what is felt to be an important initiative for research infrastructure in Europe, the ESF Standing Committee for the Social Sciences (SOC (formerly SCSS)) decided to allocate additional funding to Rounds 1 and 2 of the ESS in order to cover the costs of meetings of five ESS bodies; for Round 3, the ESF has allocated funding to the meetings of the Funders’ Forum and Scientific Advisory Board.
In 2007, the ESF invited those countries participating in the ESS to sign a Memorandum of Understanding, to help ensure a more long-term funding. The Memorandum was to cover Rounds 3 and 4, i.e. the years 2005-2009.
The project is directed by a Central Co-ordinating Team led by Professor Roger Jowell and full details of ongoing work are available on the ESS website go to website
Research Infrastructure
The ESS is listed as one of the Research Infrastructures in the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) Roadmap that appeared in October 2006. The Roadmap is the result of an intensive two-year consultation and peer review process involving over 1000 high level European and international experts. It identifies 35 large scale infrastructure projects, at various stages of development, in seven key research areas including Environmental Sciences; Energy; Materials Sciences; Astrophysics, Astronomy, Particle and Nuclear Physics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Social Sciences and the Humanities; Computation and data Treatment. More details on ESFRI and an electronic copy of the report can be found on the ESFRI web pages: go to website (published 21 November 2006)
The Central Coordinating Team of the ESS issues regular news bulletins that can be consulted on the main ESS website. You can subscribe to receive the lastest information. go to website
