Rīga Stradiņš University becomes CESSDA partner in Latvia

Ingmārs Kreišmanis
Development Project Manager, RSU Social Sciences Research Centre

The plan is to strengthen cooperation with social science research centres and infrastructures across Europe, gaining expertise in research data collection, processing, and the use of various digital tools. As a CESSDA partner, RSU will also have the opportunity to participate in networks and projects with leading European social science research institutions.

CESSDA is the leading European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) in the social sciences, bringing together 22 member states and providing an extensive network of experts and data managers. It is also a member of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI). CESSDA offers shared access and continuous expansion of leading social science research data repositories, and actively develops technical and methodological solutions for the acquisition, processing, description, and use of social science research data. Furthermore, CESSDA plays a key role in developing and updating standards to ensure data interoperability and compatibility across organisations and countries for machine learning algorithms, facilitating large-scale research and big data processing.

The RSU Social Sciences Research Centre, in collaboration with the Higher Education and Science Information Technology Shared Service Centre, is working to ensure Latvia's participation in CESSDA, both to take full advantage of the services and systems offered, and to promote the quality and use of social science research data in Latvia. The CESSDA membership will also help Latvia to gain access to networks and project consortia at a European level and increase the visibility of Latvian research data and other research results.

Background

Research data management is a very important part of the social science research process. Social science research data ranges from survey results, interview and observation data, registers and monitoring data to experimental data and web-based data. At the same time, it should be noted that new types and forms of data are constantly emerging in many research activities, especially in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research. More and more research organisations internationally and across institutions are recognising their value and potential for future research, student engagement and collaboration with other research organisations. The application of common principles for the processing, presentation and description of data enables larger projects with a greater impact to be undertaken, including collaboration in international research consortia and their infrastructure.

The RSU Social Sciences Research Centre is actively implementing new practices and tools in the collection, processing and management of research data with the overall aim of improving the quality and impact of research and its results in the future.