What is PASSDA?
PASSDA (Production and Archive of Social Science Data) is the Portuguese infrastructure for the collection, archive and dissemination of data about social and political attitudes, values, and behaviours. It is the national node of several international research networks and infrastructures that collect these types of data through surveys applied to representative samples of the population, such as the European Social Survey-ERIC or the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, as well as of the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA-ERIC). PASSDA is integrated in the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures supported by the Foundation for Science and Technology, and was instituted as a partnership between research centres and units of the University of Lisbon, ISCTE-IUL, the University of Coimbra and the University of Porto.
In 2019, in the maturity evaluation of the infrastructures of the Portuguese Roadmap, PASSDA’s was evaluated as “Very High”, one of six among 52 and the only in the Social Sciences and Humanities to obtain the maximum grade.
Goals
The PASSDA consortium ensures the participation of Portugal in some of the most important European and international infrastructures dedicated to the collection of data on social and political attitudes, values, and behaviours. These include the European Social Survey, the European Values Study, and the International Social Survey Programme, regular international surveys of social values and attitudes of representative samples of the population; the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the Comparative National Elections Project, post-electoral surveys conducted near representative samples of the electorate; and CESSDA, a consortium of European archives of social science data.
Besides guaranteeing the participation of Portugal in the governance, scientific, and methodological bodies of these projects, PASSDA ensures the collection of data through surveys conducted in Portugal, as well as the deposit of these data in several archives. It thus allows their use by the international scientific community in a totally free and open way, but always in rigorous compliance to personal data protection rules.
Independently of the analyses of these datasets conducted by the relevant scientific community, PASSDA promotes the dissemination of the main results of these studies, as well as the training of young researchers in the methodologies and techniques that are relevant for the analysis and preservation of such data. Some of the main results of these surveys can be directly accessed through the Public Opinion Portal, a partnership between the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation and ICS-ULisbon.
Partners
PASSDA is a partnership between the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra (CES-UCoimbra), ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL), the School of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon (ISCSP-ULisboa), the School of Management and Economics of the University of Lisbon (ISEG-ULisboa), the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES/ISCTE-IUL), the Centre of Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies (DINÂMIA’CET – IUL), the Center for Research and Social Intervention, (CIS/ISCTE-IUL), Research in Social Sciences and Management (CSG/ISEG-ULisboa), Research in Economics and Mathematics (REM/ISEG-ULisboa), the Centre for Public Administration and Public Policies (CAPP/ISCSP-ULisboa), the Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (CIEG/ISCSP-ULisboa), and the Institute of Sociology (IS-UPorto). An enlargement of the consortium is ongoing, including research units all over the country: the Centro Interdisciplinar de Ciências Sociais (CICS.NOVA), the Research Center in Political Science (CICP-UMinho), the Centre for Research and Intervention in Education (CIIE-UPorto), the Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public Policies (GOVCOPP-UAveiro), the Laboratory of Instrumentation and Experimental Particle Physics (LIP) and the Centre for Research in Economics and Management (NIPE-UMinho).
Governing bodies
The governance of PASSDA is assured by the General Assembly, the Scientific Council, the Advisory Council, and the Directive Board.