This white paper provides a comprehensive programme description for the Infrastructure Priority Programme "New Data Spaces for the Social Sciences" (SPP 2431), explaining the scientific context and the urgent need to modernize traditional survey research. It outlines a strategic response to declining participation rates and rising fieldwork costs by integrating technological innovations into empirical social research.
The paper describes the four core research areas where methodological innovation is critical:
-
Exploration and Integration
-
Respondent-Driven Designs
-
Instrument Validity
-
Multimodal Data Acquisition
Additionally, the paper provides a detailed description of the programme’s structure, including its governance framework and the ENTAILab. As the central research hub, the ENTAILab facilitates the integration of these innovations into major existing panel studies and provides supports to individual projects in the areas of data quality, reproducibility, data protection, and ethical standards.