Microdata access

ODISSEI continues making funds available for employees of member organisations using CBS Microdata. ODISSEI offers two programmes: Microdata Discount (MAD) and Microdata Grants. Both grants are described in the guidelines (on the right):

Microdata Access Grant (MAG) call 2024

The 2024 round of the Microdata Access Grant (MAG) call is now open. The deadline for this call is 16 January 2024, 15:00 CET. Click the button on the right to read the conditions of the call.

Information event and Q&A.
To facilitate the preparation of proposals, ODISSEI and CBS make the recording of an earlier information session on the conditions of the Microdata Access Grant available (the recording of the 2023 round, with identical conditions, is accessible here).

Additionally, ODISSEI scheduled a Q&A session, which is meant to clarify any remaining questions. During this meeting, potential applicants can ask questions on conducting research with CBS Microdata (available data, searching for the data, procedures, etc.) and the grant application procedure. The event will take place on 20 November 2023, 15:00-16:00. Please find registration for the event here.

Previous rounds
In the earlier rounds of the call, between six and eight projects could be funded. On our website you can find an overview of the projects that were granted in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Contact
Questions about the MAG call can be directed to our Scientific Manager, dr. Kasia Karpinska, via kasia@odissei-data.nl.

Microdata Access Discount (MAD) 

Starting from January 2024, the Microdata Access Discount programme is discontinued. After careful evaluation and extensive consultations with the research community, the ODISSEI Management Board has made this decision due to the increasing number of projects and a fixed budget to accommodate them, which leads to constantly dropping average discount rates. We want to assure you that this change does not diminish our commitment to widening access to microdata.

The budget previously allocated to the MAD program will be redirected to accelerate improvements in Microdata Services and expand access through alternative avenues. Starting in 2024, ODISSEI and CBS will introduce the Microdata Access Grant (MAG), with two application rounds each year. This initiative aims to provide more extensive and rapid access to microdata for new researchers. Furthermore, we are exploring the addition of extra storage facilities for projects generating large databases and will invest in making the environment more user-friendly. For more details please see here

The following page displays projects that receive or have received the discount.

Conducting research with CBS microdata

Statistics Netherlands (CBS) collects a wide range of data for its statistical tasks, many of them microdata at the level of individual persons or organisations. Protection of the confidentiality of the data has the highest priority for CBS. Within strict safety conditions however, universities and other authorized research institutes can get Remote Access to such data to perform statistical analyses for their own scientific or statistical purposes. The microdata themselves remain strictly within a secure environment within CBS. Under applicable conditions researcher can also bring in additional dataset to be linked with CBS microdata. Before aggregate statistical results are exported from the secured environment, CBS will check whether these results do not contain any risk for disclosure of information on individual persons or organisations.

Read more about using microdata within the CBS Remote Access Environment.