1.
Introduction
The four publicly funded research data centres (FDZ) in Germany - the Research Data Centre
of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research, the Research
Data Centre of the German Pension Insurance (FDZ-RV), the Research Data Centre of the
Statistical Offices of the Lander and the Research Data Centre of the German Federal
Statistical Office - have made a significant improvement to the data and services available to
researchers over the past few years.1 Founded on a recommendation by the German
Commission on Improving the Informational Infrastructure between Science and Statistics
(KVI)2 and funded in the project phases by the German Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF), the centres have developed in a form that was not initially anticipated.
Their services are widely used, empirical findings lead to refereed publications and the state
of research in rendering microdata anonymous has made great leaps. Many policy decisions
are now planned and evaluated on the basis of data originating from the data research centres.
Germany has gone from the bottom of Europe’s league with regard to the use of individual
data produced by empirical research with public funding, to an innovative provider of new
ideas, such as on access to individual data for teaching purposes and linked employer-
employee datasets.
In 2007, the research data centres developed criteria for the specific design of research
data centres in Germany in conjunction with the German Council for Social and Economic
Data (RatSWD).3 These criteria are based on the experiences of the four research data centres,
which have now all been positively evaluated according to the regulations of the Leibniz
Association. The criteria catalogue is designed as a guideline for other data producers
planning to set up a research data centre.
Chapter II presents the key criteria representing a common working basis for the research
data centres. Chapter III consists of more detailed descriptions of the four research data
centres as they are today. These include the respective data provided alongside further
services and usage intensity. The article closes with an outlook over future developments.
1 Two data service centres - the German Microdata Lab (GML) at ZUMA and the International Data Service Center at IZA (IDSC) -
were also set up as part of this development, and have also worked very successfully, see Schneider/Wolf 2008.
2 Kommission zur Verbesserung der informationellen Infrastruktur zwischen Wissenschaft und Statistik (2001).
3 http://www.ratswd.de/download/publikationen_rat/RatSWD_FDZKriterien.PDF.
2