Projects

In this project we will construct a population level Macroscope, building on existing infrastructures and services from [ODISSEI](www.odissei-data.nl) and [CLARIAH](www.clariah.nl) to deliver unique opportunities for Social Science and Humanities scholars. A Macroscope is an instrument for the holistic study of complex social dynamics and the Dutch Macroscope will consist of four complementary and mutually reinforcing layers that support different phases of the research lifecycle in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). First, the Macroscope Core will adapt foundational infrastructures to accommodate the complex, sensitive, and highly interrelated data found across the SSH domain. Second, the Data Harvesting Ecosystem will enable unprecedented levels of data variety. Through integrated data systems, new technologies, and intensive collaboration, it will be possible to collect diachronic, dynamic, population scale, network data on a plethora of social issues. Third, the AI Collaboratory will provide a community-oriented platform for the training and evaluation of complex models and tools including a next generation of secure Large Language Models with a vast array of applications for research. Fourth, the Macroscope Gateway will enable scholars from across the domain and beyond to utilise the Macroscope. Once completed in 2030, SSH researchers will be able to securely bring together an unprecedented range of data, tools, and computational resources to answer societal questions that cannot be addressed presently and conduct groundbreaking multi-disciplinary research into multi-scale, complex social dynamics such as how the Dutch language is evolving in a multimedia world or how demographic change is shifting the social fabric of the Netherlands.

The European Social Survey (ESS) is the largest European Research Infrastructure in the social sciences. Historically, the survey has been carried out every two years in about 30 countries using face-to-face interviewing. The ESS is moving to self-completion (combination of web and paper) as the interview mode. In 2023-2024 I did consulting work for the ESS, and since 2025 I am a member of the Core Scientific Team, being responsible for work around the mixed-mode transition. In particular I focus on the analysis of mode nonresponse and mode measurement effects, and will produce training and guidance for ESS users on how to use the mixed-mode data in practice.

Provenance and data quality are essential for supporting the reuse of data, especially when various data sources are combined in complex and iterative ways. Data linkage can be done at the level of people, space and time, and combinations of these dimensions. This task develops a framework for assessing the quality of linked data, proposes which of the quality indicators to use in metadata so that users understand the quality of data before linkage, and develops these indicators for both linkage across people, space and time (events) depending on the dataset. It concentrates on the linkage of datasets, not on linked data in the sense of the semantic web. In the project Social Science and Humanities Open Cloud-NL (SSHOC_NL) the large-scale infrastructures ODISSEI and CLARIAH together seek to provide a step-change for the social science and humanities.

The 'WIN' project was set up in 2016 and had the goal to design and test innovative data collection strategies in social research. WIN stands for 'Waarneem Innovatie Netwerk', which in english means 'Data collection Innovation Network. The project was set up as a collaborative project between the data quality group at Utrecht University, and Statistics Netherlands. The focus of the project was on how to use mobile phones and wearable devices to improve the collection of human behavior data, and improve official statistics. We have developed our own open-source smartphone app system, and published many articles. The project was finished after 10 successful years in 2025.