About Us

A benchmark data centre for the social sciences

CDSP is one of France’s major centres for the production and handling of social science data. It is a key player in the documentation, preservation and production of data. It is also a centre of expertise on quantitative and qualitative methods, associated with the great national and European research infrastructures.

A support and research unit (UAR 828) set up in 2005 by Sciences Po and the CNRS, CDSP if sustained by a team of more than 20 developers, engineers and data specialists.

CDSP is developing a range of infrastructures, platforms and services aimed at the academic community and fully engaged with an open science approach. In this capacity, CDSP provides expertise relating to probability panels and online surveys, metadata standards, and the development and implementation of application infrastructures for research.

CDSP’s activities are also structured by several major projects, including the ELIPSS online probability panel (online longitudinal survey for the social sciences), the European Social Survey in France, but also the institutional research data repository data.sciencespo.fr, experiments on data handling procedures Aurel the production of a sample management application within the framework of comparative web panels.

A group with varied skills

CDSP relies on three operational teams to implement its range of services.

The Data Production team provides the research team with expertise in questionnaire design, quantitative survey methods and data collection. It manages the ELIPSS Panel and coordinates the French component of the European Social Survey as well as other surveys.

The Data Documentation and Dissemination team manages the CDSP databank, a catalogue of surveys and datasets accessible to the academic community. It maintains operations in several data dissemination platforms, in particular data.sciencespo.fr, and is responsible for the documentation of data collections to the international standards applicable in the domain. It facilitates access to data by providing assistance for users and contributes to the development of practices and international norms in the discipline.

The Digital Projects team is in charge of software engineering in support of the social science infrastructures. It designs, develops, integrates and maintains innovative digital solutions. It provides advice and support services at both national and international levels. Finally, more generally, the team acts as an interface in the dialogue between the needs of Science Po’s teams and IT support teams.

The Methods and Valorisation unit is a horizontal structure dedicated to the development and dissemination of social science methods. It draws on the expertise and activities of the laboratory in its different fields of action in order to develop research on social science methods and to contribute to the spread of good practices. It implements a publications, training and events strategy and contributes to the promotion of this aspect of CDSP’s activity.

CDSP’s Scientific and Technical Board brings together experts and partners to develop the Centre’s different missions. Its role is to support CDSP’s practices and strategic decisions.

Supporting the social sciences since 1981

CDSP is the direct successor to the Sociopolitical Databank (BDSP)¹ founded in 1981 in Grenoble by Frédéric Bon. BDSP was itself a descendant of the “data archives” for the social sciences that began to emerge in the 1940s, such as the Roper Center and ICPSR in the US, or UKDA, GESIS and NSD in Europe.

CDSP was set up in 2005 as a Sciences Po-CNRS Combined Service Unit, headed by Alain Chenu. To perform its task of disseminating research data for the academic community, a NESSTAR server was commissioned in 2006. CDSP was therefore able to disseminate quantitative survey data produced by researchers as well as election results in France. An interactive portal for access to these electoral results was set up in 2011, enabling online maps to be produced. CDSP also contributed to efforts to structure research data policy in France, by contributing very directly to the Quetelet² Network, but also in Europe by supporting the creation of the CESSDA European research infrastructure, which brings together the big national social science data archives of member countries.

Laurent Lesnard’s appointment as the head of CDSP in 2010 triggered a significant expansion of the Centre’s activities:

• conception and running of the DIME-SHS EquipEx,
• expansion into qualitative methods
• increased international involvement.

CDSP began to take part in international projects, notably the SPINPER International laboratory focused on election results in India, but also the Observatory of European Institutions, which documents the EU’s legislative output. CDSP also expanded its engagement with qualitative methods with the launch of the Banque d'enquêtes qualitatives (beQuali) as part of the project funded by the “Ré-analyse” National Research Agency. CDSP also coordinated the establishment of the Archipolis consortium, which was set up to integrate qualitative surveys within a single repository built from a Dataverse platform. In parallel, CDSP diversified further by moving into data production activities, in particular by coordinating the collection of French data for the European Social Survey (ESS-ERIC), a European research infrastructure that produces a biennial benchmark survey on the values and attitudes of Europeans. This turn in CDSP’s activities primarily took the form of the formation and establishment of the DIME-SHS EquipEx, a special structure that was awarded an eight-year funding grant by the National Research Agency. Supported by a consortium of 7 partners, this entity was structured around three primary instruments: ELIPSS, the social science probability panel, beQuali, the qualitative data survey data bank and exploration platform, and DIME Web, the structure that integrates tools and methods for the handling of online data. CDSP runs two of these three instruments, while DIME Web is managed by the Sciences Po medialab. So the 2010s saw a fundamental transformation in CDSP’s activity, marked by significant diversification and expansion.

This phase of rapid development was followed by a period of consolidation. In 2017, Laurent Lesnard was replaced by Nicolas Sauger, while the DIME-SHS EquipEx ceased operations in December 2020. CDSP’s role as an integrator of expertise and platforms for the production, documentation and dissemination of social science data was confirmed. Its activities gradually came to be structured around ELIPSS, around the CDSP database, accessible at data.sciencespo.fr, and around activities linked with the big European research infrastructures. In particular, through  ESS-ERIC, CDSP is involved in application development and implementation for the Cronos-2 panel, a European panel as a follow-up to the historical ESS survey. In partnership with ESS-ERIC, CDSP is also part of the PAUL project, an effort to arrive at a better understanding of greenhouse gas emissions.

¹ Bruno Cautrès, 2001, Banque de données socio-politique (BDSP), in P. Perrineau et D. Reynié (eds), Dictionnaire du vote, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, pp. 90-92

² Arianna Caporali et al., 2015, “La mise à disposition des enquêtes quantitatives en sciences sociales : l’exemple de l’INED”, Population, 70, 567-597