European funded Statistical Research: past, present and future Dr Ian Perry Indicators Activity Research in the Economic, Social Sciences and Humanities - Prospective Directorate General for Research European Commission

The past Official statistics methodological research projects were funded from: FP 2 (DOSES) FP 3 (DOSIS) and FP5 (EPROS) Under FP6 a FEW relevant projects were funded from the SSP section, e.g. EUKLEMS and KEI Non official statistics were produced by other projects including from other activities and themes

The present Indicators FP7 SSH research projects AMELI ( New and Improved Indicators – Laeken Indicators) ASSPRO ( New and Improved Indicators – Health care payment system indicators ) DEMETER ( Programme evaluation - Models) EERQI ( Programme evaluation – new indicators) JUSTIS ( New and Improved Indicators – Perception of Justice Indicators) POINT ( Use of Indicators for Policy – particularly in sustainable development) RISQ ( Official Statistics – Representativity indicators) SAMPLE ( Official Statistics – Small area estimation) SSH projects address policy needs and therefore should produce ‘databases’ of information, including statistics, which support evidence based policy making as well as further SSH research Non official statistics are being produced by other projects including from other activities and themes of FP7, e.g. 3 projects on intangible investments and one on input-output tables from the SSH theme

p 4 General orientations for the future ; difficult  Good relationships with and cooperation between DG Research (especially SSH and Infrastructures), Eurostat and researchers is essential; National Statistical Institutes should be involved and users as well (DGs and others)  Roadmap of building blocks for the FP7 SSH work programme  Statistical methodologies and validation issues should continue to be addressed as SSH research projects  An ERANET on statistics

Specific Objectives for the future To continue to support methodological research for official statistics But also to develop a strategy aimed at improving the QUALITY, ACCESSIBILITY and thus USEFULNESS, for both policy makers and researchers, of the non official statistics resulting from FPs

The future: 2009 Further Indicators topics to be included in the 2009 WP Service statistics (New and Improved Indicators Area) Data mangement for statistics (Official Statistics Area) Supported by an ERA net in statistics WP and call to be published early autumn 2008

The future: Indicators (and Statistics) A Building Blocks approach with probably only one large project aiming to cover the whole of the topic How to handle ‘Databases’ resulting from research projects also needs to be addressed and as does how to use them in ‘Modelling Frameworks’  How to organise ‘databases’ into a consistent framework  How to make ‘good’ datasets as visible and accessible as possible  How to validate data  Guaranteeing the maintenance and updating of databases  How to provide a modelling framework building on the datasets (EUKLEMS is an example of good practice and of the sort of issues that need to be addressed)

p 8 FP7–SSH research - the main drivers EU challenges oriented, globalization Balanced in terms of disciplines Quantitative and qualitative dimensions Indicators, foresight / forecasts Scientific evidence for policy making