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Policy Brief

Securing High-quality Data on Populations

Why we need EuroCohort, GGP and SHARE in Europe

Evidence-based policy requires high-quality data. Fortunately, we are living through a data revolution, which is opening up new opportunities for better quality data to feed into the policymaking process. There is an increasingly diverse range of data to help inform policy. Data from censuses and population registers, as well as from surveys, biomarkers, digital trace data and genetic data can help us triangulate and deepen our understanding of populations. However, when there is such a vast amount of data available, there is a danger that we end up drowning in numbers.
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Key Messages

  • Research infrastructures such as EuroCohort, GGP and SHARE are key to ensure high quality, evidence-based social policies in Europe.
  • EuroCohort, GGP and SHARE can deliver a comprehensive picture of the European life course from early years until later life. They cover all the major phases of life and adapt the methods and content of their data collection to suit the target population.
  • These research infrastructures closely collaborate in order to ensure synergies, comparability in the data collected and deliver efficiencies and innovations in data collection processes.

Additional Information

Authors of Original Article

Source

Emery, T., Pollock, G. & Scherpenzeel, A. (2019): Securing High-quality Data on Populations: Why we need EuroCohort, GGP and SHARE in Europe. Population & Policy Compact 23, Berlin: Max Planck Society/Population Europe.