This study will assess the impact of the European Social Survey on academia, policy-making and policy-makers, professional practitioners and other groups outside academia from 2001-2016. The study will be focused within each of the current ESS ERIC member and observer countries but should also reflect more generally on the pan-European level.

The Impact Study will be focused on each of the current ESS ERIC Member and Observer countries. The purpose of the study will be to:

— Identify and study specific academic, policy and practice impacts arising from ESS data in each country;

— Study the mechanisms through which impact has been achieved through the use of data by organisations and individuals in each country;

— Identify the range of organisations/individuals who have made use of the ESS, and the ways in which the data have been used;

— Study the role of Think Tanks, and other intermediaries, as transmission routes through which ESS data may have influenced policy in countries;

— Through comparative activity across countries, identify best practice and lessons for impact generation in research infrastructures like the ESS; and

— Critically reflect upon the methods used to assess and identify research infrastructure impact.