The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) was fully established in June 2013 as a permanent pan-European distributed research infrastructure that aims to provide large scale, integrated and sustainable data services to the social sciences. The main objective of CESSDA is to provide seamless access to data across data archives, national borders, languages and research areas and to increase the impact of the activities that are happening at a national level. CESSDA AS (Main Office) is a Norwegian limited liability company solely owned by the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, and functions as the legal vehicle and the coordination hub for the consortium. It is located in Bergen, Norway.

Activities

As foreseen in its statutes, the mission of CESSDA is to provide a full scale sustainable research infrastructure that enables the research community to conduct high-quality research which in turn leads to effective solutions to the major challenges facing society today. The intention since its launch has been to progress rapidly to the European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) status. At a European level, CESSDA plays an important role in several major projects funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, thus setting the standard in data management and access in the social sciences and humanities.

Funding

In 2015, CESSDA is a consortium consisting of 14 European member countries and one observer country. According to the CESSDA Statutes, the funding scheme shall be based on each country’s GDP. Germany and Norway have offered to pay disproportional annual amounts of respectively 750,000 and 800,000 Euros. The annual member fee contribution in 2014 was 1.9 million Euros, based on 13 member countries. In 2015 Greece joined CESSDA and the annual fee increased accordingly reaching 1.933 million Euros for 2015. There was therefore a surplus from the 2015 budget resulting from underspent means in 2015. A substantial carry over into the 2016 Work Plan budget is expected.

The Working Environment and the Natural Environment

The Main Office of CESSDA, at Parkveien 20, 5007 Bergen, had four employees in 2015:

Managing Director – Paul Jackson (until 31 July 2015), Acting Administrative Manager/Senior Project Manager – Ivana Ilijašić Veršić (from 1 August 2015), Administrative Secretary – Nina Bakanova, and Senior Communications Officer – Eleanor Smith.

CESSDA employees work in an office environment with computers as their most used working tool and they are also required, on occasions, to travel abroad to perform their duties.

The amount of days of short-term sickness absence was equal to zero days in 2015. Long-term sickness absence was not registered in 2015. No injuries or accidents were registered. CESSDA’s activities have not polluted the natural environment.

Staff by Age and Gender

The gender distribution was three women and one man in 2015. There was a higher proportion of female employees (75%) in 2015. CESSDA endeavours to achieve an even gender distribution by hiring additional staff in the Main Office in the near future. CESSDA emphasises diversity and encourages qualified candidates to apply for jobs, regardless of age or cultural and ethnic background.

Annual Accounts

The financial performance for 2015 is positive. CESSDA is financially sound, and the company’s prospects are good. The Board confirms that the requirements of the ongoing concern assumption are met. Annual net profit for 2015 was 0 NOK. Pursuant to the company’s Statutes, no dividend is distributed.

Next chapter: Financial Statement