About us.

About us

about the liss panel

The LISS panel was founded in 2007 and is managed by the independent non-profit institute Centerdata, located at the campus of Tilburg University. Centerdata is an official partner of Tilburg University and utilizes the LISS panel to collect research data through online surveys. These data are collected for scientific researchers and policy makers, primarily from the (experimental) social, economic, and behavioral sciences. However, researchers from other disciplines such as health, humanities, and digital sciences also make use of the LISS panel.

History of the liss panel

The LISS panel was founded in 2007 as the core element of the project Measurement and Experimentation in the Social Sciences (MESS). In 2006, the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) awarded a grant to the research institute Centerdata for this project, for a period of 7 years. This NWO subsidy was instituted by the Cabinet with a view to boosting the Dutch knowledge economy and the climate for innovation in our country. The proposal was submitted by Marcel Das, Arie Kapteyn, and Arthur van Soest.

The MESS project entailed both an optimal infrastructure for empirical research in the social sciences and the financial resources to carry out this research. The project was strongly geared to integrating different academic disciplines and developing and testing new, innovative research techniques. From October 2010 up until December 2014, the MESS project included an Immigrant panel in addition to the regular LISS panel. The NWO subsidy ended in 2014. More than hundred universities and institutes worldwide have used the MESS infrastructure by then. Over 8,000 researchers have already registered for using the LISS Data Archive. We are grateful to all researchers for building up this successful and high-quality infrastructure.

In 2019, the LISS panel became an integral part of ODISSEI.

Core Management Team

The everyday management of the LISS panel is overseen by:

Boukje Cuelenaere, head of the Survey Research department at Centerdata
Joris Mulder, LISS coordinator and senior researcher at Centerdata
Maarten Streefkerk, data archive coordinator and survey researcher at Centerdata
Josette Janssen, panel manager at Centerdata

Principal Investigators

Marcel Das, director of Centerdata and professor at Tilburg University
Arie Kapteyn, professor at University of Southern California, CESR
Arthur van Soest, professor at Tilburg University

ODISSEI

Centerdata is a member organization of ODISSEI (Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations), the sustainable research infrastructure for the social sciences in the Netherlands. Through ODISSEI, researchers within the social sciences have access to large-scale, longitudinal data collections that can be connected to register data from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) in a secure environment. This virtual web enables researchers to answer new, cross-disciplinary research questions and to investigate existing questions in new ways. ODISSEI is a collaborative project initiated by the project leaders of a number of large-scale data collections from CBS, SURF, Centerdata and NWO. The creation of a national data platform has been included in the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Scientific Infrastructure 2016-2020.

The LISS panel is an integral part of ODISSEI, which funds panel refreshment rounds for the LISS panel recruiting new households for panel participation. Employees of ODISSEI member organisations receive a discount when using the LISS panel for collecting new data or conducting experiments. ODISSEI and LISS regularly open calls for proposals, giving researchers from member organizations the chance to collect research data in the LISS panel for free. The submissions are assessed by an independent and interdisciplinary committee.

ODISSEI has over 40 member organizations, including abovementioned parties and academic faculties throughout the country. Through ODISSEI’s national perspective, the advantages of upscaling, knowledge exchange (in the legal sphere, for instance), mutual enrichment, and international collaboration are exploited to the fullest extent.

Board of Overseers

The Board of Overseers protected the project’s scientific quality during the subsidy period 2007-2014 and consisted of:

Kees Aarts, University of Groningen
Jelke Bethlehem, Leiden University
Benedict Dellaert, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Winnie Gebhardt, Leiden University
Joop Hox, Utrecht University
Matthijs Kalmijn, University of Amsterdam
Jochen Peter, University of Amsterdam
Yfke Ongena, University of Groningen
Annemarie Koster, Maastricht University

Advisory Board

The International Board of Advisors advised on the design of the facility and its scientific and societal contribution during the subsidy period 2007-2014. It also provided feedback on proposed investments and made recommendations for enhancements. Once a year the Board evaluated the progress of the MESS project with a formal report. The International Advisory Board consisted of:

Mick Couper, University of Michigan
Don Dillman, Washington State University
Daniel Kahneman, Princeton University
Frauke Kreuter, University of Maryland
Jon Krosnick, Stanford University
Peter Lynn, University of Essex
Daniel McFadden, University of California at Berkeley
Norbert Schwarz, University of Southern California
Arthur Stone, University of Southern California
Andrew Steptoe, University College London
Nout Wellink, Former President of the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB)

Partners

The Centerdata research institute implements the MESS project and maintains the LISS panel in partnership with the following institutes:

Statistics Netherlands safeguards the composition of the LISS panel and collaborates with Centerdata in improving the data.
SIM B.V. provides equipment and ADSL broadband connections for those households that do not have a computer or Internet access.
Kantar TNS contacts and recruits households to participate in the panel. (up until 2016)
I&O Research contacts and recruits households to participate in the panel.
DANS Data Archiving and Networked Services
ODISSEI Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations

Use the LISS panel

Submit your request for collecting new research data in the LISS panel

access the archive

Get access to the archive and download existing LISS panel data