"Panels have a future!"

FReDA project leader Prof. Dr. Martin Bujard discussed the "Future of Social Science Surveys and Panel Infrastructures" together with Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Prof. Dr. Gert Wagner and Prof. Dr. Christof Wolf. The event took place as part of the scientific symposium "Daten.Forschung.Zukunft" on 6 July 2023 in Wiesbaden.

Prof. Dr. Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), Head of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and Professor of Educational Research in Bamberg, emphasised the importance of long-term survey structures in her opening statement: this is the only way to observe and analyse progressions, changes and decisions, but also attitudes. "Panels have a future," Artelt concluded.

Prof. Dr. Gert Wagner was able to prove with many examples that the "lack of harmonisation" of panels does have many advantages. Accordingly, large studies would continue to develop independently of each other and find innovative solutions to the challenges of social science surveys, said Wagner, who, among other things, was responsible for one of the world's largest and most widely used longitudinal studies, the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), at the German Institute for Economic Research from 1989 to 2011.

Methodological considerations were the focus of the presentation by Prof. Dr. Wolf, President of GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology at the University of Mannheim. Decreasing survey utilisation figures and rising costs led to a rethinking of the survey procedures some time ago. According to Wolf, Corona has acted as an additional accelerator in this context.

In a European comparison, Germany is one of the leaders in surveys, according to the participants in the session. Funding for non-university research is very strong in Germany. Nevertheless, a high level of commitment and innovation will be necessary in the future. It is a matter of becoming more agile: Maintaining high quality standards and still being able to collect and provide data more quickly.