ODISSEI to build a population macroscope with support from the department of M&S

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded the national research infrastructure ODISSEI a grant of 16 million euros.

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has awarded the national research infrastructure ODISSEI a grant of 16 million euros. With this funding, researchers from the department of Methodology and Statistics (M&S), together with other universities and research institutes, will build the world’s first population macroscope. This Macroscope will enable researchers to measure and track social change, disinformation and trust.

It’s comparable to the invention of the microscope: suddenly, we could see what was happening inside a cell. The Macroscope will make visible the hidden dynamics of societies.

A lens on society

logo ODISSEI
  • How does disinformation spread?
  • Why do some communities remain resilient while others fall apart?
  • How is trust built within Dutch society, and what causes it to erode?

To answer questions like these, data are essential — vast amounts of data, for example from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) and from scientific research. And an infrastructure is needed to combine, process and explore these data securely. Thanks to the grant, that infrastructure can now be built. Daniel Oberski, Professor in Methodology and Statistics and Scientific Director of ODISSEI, sees the population macroscope as a lens: "The Netherlands has built world-leading infrastructures for research. The Macroscope connects them, giving us a new lens on society."

ODISSEI: Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations

ODISSEI  is a shared research infrastructure with the aim of compiling new and existing social sciences data and enriching them with data from government databases and online sources.

The grant for the Macroscope has been awarded to ODISSEI and Clariah, ODISSEI’s sister infrastructure in the humanities.

Computing power

For researchers, the Macroscope can make a world of difference. For example, Ana Macanović, Assistant Professor in Sociology, studies how collaborative relationships emerge through language and media representation. "While Large Language Models are invaluable for text analysis, transparent open-source model infrastructure is key to protecting scientific data without sacrificing computational power," she explains. "The Macroscope will be crucial for achieving this."

A substantial amount for FSBS

In addition to Daniel Oberski, Peter Lugtig, Laura Boeschoten and Erik-Jan van Kesteren will also be working on the Macroscope. This means that the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (FSBS) will receive a share of around €4.8 million from the grant.