Research data are the raw materials of science. Infrastructures are required for the collection or indexing, processing and safeguarding of research data in the humanities and social sciences. The Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) has been supporting the establishment and further development of these infrastructures for many years.
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Depending on the type of data provided, there are different types of research data infrastructures in the humanities and social sciences. The spectrum ranges from panels and surveys, which include regular population surveys, to digital offerings of humanities sources, software for analysing them, to portals that pre-structure access for specific topics and associated training offerings.
In order to promote a process for professional data management and the harmonisation of research data in Germany, the Council for Information Infrastructures (RfII) set up by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) recommended the establishment of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in 2016. This process is being implemented by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim is to make data from science and research available, network it and make it usable in the long term. To this end, standards, services and training courses are being developed and brought together under one roof in 26 consortia organised by subject or method.
In the field of social sciences, the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) funds the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). The SOEP is one of the largest and longest-running multidisciplinary panel studies in the world, for which around 30,000 people in almost 15,000 households are currently surveyed each year. Research based on SOEP data makes an outstanding contribution to a better understanding of people's lives in our society. In addition, the family demographic panel "FReDA - Family Research and Demographic Analysis", which surveys several thousand randomly selected people aged 18 to 49 and their partners throughout Germany, was set up with funding from the BMFTR. Since 2021, the ministry has provided funding for the development and operation of a "Data Portal for Racism and Right-Wing Extremism Research (DP-R|EX)".
Since the early 2000s, the BMFTR has also supported the social sciences' endeavours to improve access to statistical data, for example that of the pension insurance scheme and the relevant state and federal authorities. In this context, the German Council for Social and Economic Data (RatSWD) was established and funded by the BMFTR until 2020. The RatSWD is now anchored in the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) as part of the KonsortSWD.
In the field of the humanities, projects utilise the services of humanities research data infrastructures and thus promote their establishment. The Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure (CLARIN-D) and the Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH) have been funded by the BMFTR as research infrastructures for the humanities since the 2000s. Both research data infrastructures have been established in an association (CLARIAH.de) since 2019 and are funded together with other players via the NFDI as the "Text+" consortium.
In 2002, the multidisciplinary European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) was established by the EU Council of Research Ministers. This provides for the establishment of excellent thematic and cross-thematic research infrastructures as alliances of European partners by supporting them in a roadmap process. ESFRI publishes a strategy report, the so-called "ESFRI Roadmap", at regular intervals.
The Federal Republic of Germany is a member of most European research data infrastructures. As a rule, significantly more than the minimum number of three countries are involved in the establishment of European infrastructures, with one European member state taking on a coordinating role in each case. For the "Survey on Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe" (SHARE), international coordination is based in Germany at the SHARE Berlin Institute (SBI), which was founded specifically for this purpose. GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences coordinates the German project work for two other European infrastructures focussing on the social sciences, the "European Social Survey (ESS)" and the "Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA)". In the field of the humanities, Germany is a member of the European counterparts of the above-mentioned established infrastructures "Common Language Resources and Technology Infrastructure (CLARIN-D)" and "Digital Research Infrastructure for the Arts and Humanities (DARIAH)", as well as the relatively new infrastructure "European Holocaust Research Infrastructure (EHRI)". No ERIC has yet been established in the relatively new infrastructure "Open Scholarly Communication in the European Research Area for Social Sciences and Humanities" (OPERAS). Germany is represented in the predecessor committees.
