The activities of the major data infrastructures for the Social Sciences have yielded valuable experience that has helped to identify future needs for social science infrastructure in Europe. Among those are:

• Better access to statistical microdata and survey data
• Better harmonisation and co-ordination of data collection to improve comparability for pan-European research
• Instruments for easier access
• Quality standards, best practice
• Networking the infrastructures to include more socio-economic and contextual data.

The NESSIE network represents a continuation of the earlier Study Group on Large Scale Facilities in the Social Sciences set up by the European Commission to provide useful background information for the implementation of the "Access to Large Scale Facilities" program. The task of the Study Group was to:

• Identify future priorities of European scientists concerning access to large-scale facilities in their field;
• suggest ways to meet these priorities in the light of the present and expected availability of large scale facilities; and
• investigate the possibilities for wider integration of the social sciences in the research and development programs within the Framework Program.

The TMR Roundtable on Infrastructures carried on this work for Socio-economic Research. It is the aim of this Network to continue the work of these groups and to concentrate on the priorities set by them.

Earlier discussions have identified a number of key problems and areas on which European-level attention and action are required which are summarised in the Coordination Report on Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences presented to CREST in October of 1998 The current state of the art is summarised in a paper by one of the partners, Ekkehard Mochmann, to the EU Socio-Economic Research Conference in Brussels in April of 1997. Discussions on this topic also took place at the Conference on Social Sciences for a Digital World in Ottawa in October of 1999 sponsored by OECD and attended by several of the partners. A report from that conference is available.

Most pressing among the requirements identified are the need for comparable accessible micro-data for both nations and cultures, for access to good quality data which allows analysis at all levels as well as national and international, and the fostering of the possibilities for merging data of different kinds and from differing sources - statistical data, social research data, economic data, administrative records. The overall aim was to encourage a more economical and effective method of accessing essential data and the possibility of more accurate comparative research.

The Network on Economic and Social Science Infrastructure in Europe will pursue this further and will assist the process of achieving these aims through co-ordination and common development of the activities of the four large research infrastructures who are partners in the Network and through the production and dissemination of guidelines of best practice.