standardised form through internet sites, data and method reports, and individual
consulting. The research data centres’ tasks also include organising and participating
in academic events in order to present the available data material, and presenting the
available data and access to potentially interested parties (particularly non-university
research institutes, specialised colleges of higher education and universities). The
research data centres actively participate in academic discussion on the potential for
analysis of existing data and in dialogues on use and development possibilities of the
data infrastructure for scientific purposes.
5. A specific amount of research must take place within the research data centres.
Practical research is essential to become familiar with the data and the latest
methodological and content-related discussions, and thus to be able to provide users
with adequate advice and instructions. The work within the research data centres must
not be restricted to service activities, as this would ultimately be equivalent to an exit
from the scientific stage. Scientific research within the research data centres enables
access to further skills and qualifications and participation in scientific events, and
also the publication of own work in the relevant journals.
6. Research within the research data centres is not coupled with exclusive access for the
data producers. The anonymous microdata is made available simultaneously to all
researchers, at least via controlled remote data access or at workplaces for guest
researchers.
3. The Four Publicly Funded Research Data Centres
From 1999 to 2001, the German Commission on Improving the Informational Infrastructure
between Science and Statistics developed proposals for improving the data infrastructure
between the scientific and statistics communities, on behalf of the BMBF. One of this
commission’s central recommendations was to set up research data centres. There are
currently four research data centres in Germany recommended by the RatSWD, which are
described in detail below.
3.1 Research Data Centre of the German Federal Statistical Office
The Research Data Centre of the German Federal Statistical Office was the first research data
centre to be set up on the recommendation of the KVI in 2001, and was positively evaluated
in summer 2004. The core activity of the Research Data Centre of the German Federal