Users at the ZA-EUROLAB from 1996

In 1995, the Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA) and the Institute for Social Sciences in Essex (ECASS) were acknowledged by the European Union to be the first "Large-Scale Facilities" (LSF) in the Social Sciences. As a large-scale facility, formerly known only in natural and technical sciences, the Central Archive carried out visiting programs for researchers from countries of the European Union and associated states. These visits have been supported by the "Training and Mobility of Researchers" (TMR) programme of the European Commission from 1996 to 2000 in order to facilitate comparative social research. Under this program the Central Archive offered access to its databases, participation in training seminars and workshops, as well as training in data analysis and data management.

The ZA EUROLAB was established at the ZA to carry out the visiting programme and to provide access to the services and databases of the ZA. Altogether, 100 researchers from 15 European countries have been hosted by the ZA EUROLAB within the TMR-LSF programme in the period between 1996 and 2000. For more information see: "Final report from the ZA EUROLAB 1996 - 2000". Between 2000 and 2003 the ZA EUROLAB was supported by the Improving Human Potential - Access to Research Infrastructures (IHP-ARI) action by the European Commission. 87 researchers from 27 countries spent 1329 access days working at the ZA EUROLAB during this time period. For a summary of the IHP-ARI activities see: ZA EUROLAB activities 2000 - 2003.  Since 1996 187 researchers have spent 2376 access days at the ZA-EUROLAB. Research topics range from values, national identity and electoral research to latent budget analysis and procrustes problems. A list of publications carried out by ZA-EUROLAB users can be found here.

In 2004 David Jiménez and Gema M. Carrillo, University of Almeria, Spain, have been working in the ZA-EUROLAB with the aim of searching for relevant data to apply in their marketing models. Furthermore, Josè Manuel Ortega Egea, also University of Almeria, worked in the ZA-EUROLAB analyzing the concept of “digital divide”. Tsuyoshi Sugano, Nikon University, Japan, has visited the ZA-EUROLAB in 2003/2004 to learn about data management and archiving. Alan Brier, University of Southampton, United Kingdom, has been working here at several occasions. In cooperation with ZA-staff he has improved and extended his software “HAMLET 2 next generation” which can be used for content analysis.  Antonietta Curci, University of Bari, Italy, visited the GESIS-ZA and ZA-EUROLAB with 25 students in order to learn about the GESIS-ZA and research activities offered by the ZA-EUROLAB. Finally, Paola Bordandini, University of Bologna, Italy, worked here for a month end 2005 analyzing "Trust, social capital and political culture in Italy and other EU countries.