In this month’s episode, Tom Emery talks to Steven Ruggles (University of Minnesota). Ruggles founded IPUMS, which gives researchers around the world free access to census and survey data. Together they discuss how linking census records, administrative data and surveys can trace lives across generations. They also cover what this means for privacy and public trust.

Affiliations:

• Steven Ruggles – Regents Professor of History and Population Studies at the University of Minnesota, and the Director of the Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation
• Dr. Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.ipums.org/

In this episode, Tom Emery talks with Professor Tim Reeskens and Associate Professor Mark Boukes about two of the world's longest-running surveys on social change. Together they explore what decades of data reveal about shifting attitudes toward politics, religion, trust, family, and identity, and whether today's debates about polarisation and cultural divides hold up against the evidence. The conversation also looks at how these surveys are adapting to declining response rates, digital trace data, and the AI era, and what they might tell us about where societies are heading next.

Affiliations:

• Tim Reeskens – Professor of European Values ​​and Societies in the Department of Sociology at Tilburg University. Country lead, European Values Study
• Mark Boukes – Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Science at the University of Amsterdam. Country lead, World Values Survey
• Dr. Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

In this episode, Tom Emery sits down with Lana Fani, Managing Director of the Netherlands Cohorts Consortium (NCC), to talk about her path into cohort research and what drew her to the NCC. Lana explains why cohort studies are such a powerful tool for health research as well as other fields, and how linking data across cohorts - the NCC's core ambition - could unlock findings a single study could seldom reach on its own. Tom and Lana also dig into an unexpected overlap: how health and social science data are connected, even when the two fields rarely talk to each other.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Lana Fani, MD, Managing Director of the Netherlands Cohorts Consortium
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.nwo.nl/projecten/fovyr99232
https://amazingerasmusmc.nl/epidemiologie/miljoenen-voor-landelijk-cohortonderzoek-naar-gezond-ouder-worden/

In this episode, Tom Emery talks with Jack Fitzgerald, a PhD candidate in economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute. Jack tells us all about replication, and how he developed his passion for it. He points out that replication can be a very useful tool for early career researchers to understand how experts in the field think about and conduct research, down to their code. He and Tom dig into how the Replication Games could change the research culture and how they came to be. Jack also discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent to administrative data, and suggests how those data could be made more accessible for replication.

Affiliations:

• Jack Fitzgerald, PhD Candidate, School of Business and Economics, Ethics, Governance and Society; Tinbergen Institute
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.i4replication.org/
https://www.i4replication.org/blog/replication-games-in-secure-environments-replicating-research-with-dutch-administrative-data

Tom Emery speaks with Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology, Computer Science, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University and co-founder of SICSS (the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science). Nearly ten years on, Chris reflects on how SICSS grew from a single location to more than 50 worldwide, and the community that made it possible. He also explains why the part of the courses in which participants develop their own projects is the heart of the programme: a space where experimentation, and even failure, is part of learning. And with AI reshaping both education and the social sciences, Chris draws on the lessons of COVID-era adaptation to ask what it means to teach in the age of LLMs.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology, Computer Science, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University; Co-founder of the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Sciences
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://sicss.io/apply#faq
https://sicss.io/overview
https://github.com/compsocialscience/summer-institute
https://sicss.io/tom

In this episode, Tom Emery speaks with Konrad Turek, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University and a core team member of the Comparative Panel File (CPF). As the recipient of the first ODISSEI Open Science Award, Konrad reflects on how seeing science as a collective endeavour, rather than an individual pursuit, shaped the development of the CPF with a small group of collaborators. He also discusses how open-source harmonisation projects like the CPF enhance explanatory power by enabling meaningful comparisons across countries and survey studies.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Konrad Turek, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful Links:
https://cpfdata.com/
https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v11-33-907/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1673209/full

In this episode, Tom Emery is joined by Kasia Karpinska, Scientific Manager at ODISSEI, to walk through how researchers can get started with the ODISSEI infrastructure. Kasia shares practical insights on grant applications and using multiple ODISSEI facilities together. They also introduce the ODISSEI Early Career Board — a new initiative designed to support early-career researchers through training, development, and networking opportunities.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Kasia Karpinska, Scientific Manager of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful Links:
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/microdata-access-grant/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/cbs-microdata-discount/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/liss-panel-access/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/odissei-soda-fellowship/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/grant-application-support/

In this episode, Tom Emery speaks with Adriënne Mendrik, CEO and Co-founder of Eyra, an open-source software services company specialising in solutions for scientific research. Adriënne shares her journey from computer science and medical imaging to building software that supports sustainable and transparent research practices. She also discusses Eyra’s work in benchmarking and data donation initiatives, the role of open source in research software, and how her team helps shape advancements in social science infrastructure.
Affiliations:

• Adriënne Mendrik, CEO and Co-founder of Eyra
• Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.eyra.co/