FORS, Swiss Centre of Expertise in the Social Sciences, is a national research infrastructure, created in 2008. FORS is financed by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research, the Swiss National Science Foundation, and the University of Lausanne

University of Lausanne

The University of Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of theology, before being made a university in 1890. Today about 12,000 students and 2200 researchers study and work at the university...

. Its purpose is to provide services to the social science research community, to conduct research, and to publish and disseminate research findings.

FORS activities specifically comprise the following:

• conducting national and international surveys on social and political topics;
• documenting and providing datasets of all kinds for secondary analyses;
• enhancing methods and procedures for survey research;
• advising researchers.

FORS integrates infrastructures and research projects like the Swiss Household Panel (SHP), the Swiss Electoral Studies (Selects), the Social Report, and the current Data and Research Information Services (DARIS).

In addition, FORS organises teaching and learning events, including the annual Swiss Summer School on Methods in the Social Sciences, monthly seminars on research methodology (in collaboration with social science faculty partners (MISC and IMA), workshops at Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences, as well as international conferences. FORS also offers a data portal to public statistics—COMPASS.

FORS and its staff collaborate widely with different players in the social sciences, in Switzerland and abroad.

Partner Institutions, Organisations, and Infrastructures

• Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA)
• Cross-National Equivalent File (CNEF)
  Cross National Equivalent File
  The Cross-National Equivalent File contains population panel data from Australia, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Korea,Switzerland and the United States. Each of these countries undertakes a longitudinal household economic survey. The data are made equivalent, providing a reference dataset which...
  
  
• European Social Survey (ESS)
  European social survey
  The European Social Survey is a social scientific endeavour to map the attitudes, beliefs and behaviour patterns of the various populations in Europe.-History:The ESS was initiated by the European Science Foundation...
  
  
• European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)
  European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures
  The European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures is an organization in Europe.ESFRI is a strategic instrument to develop the scientific integration of Europe and to strengthen its international outreach...
  
  
• European Survey Research Association (ESRA)
  European Survey Research Association
  The European Survey Research Association has been established to provide coordination in the field of Survey Research in Europe. According to the website, ESRA's main goal is to encourage communication between methodologists and researchers in substantive fields such as sociology, psychology,...
  
  
• International Social Survey Program (ISSP)
• Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (GESIS)
• Réseau Quételet - French Data Archives for Social Sciences
• State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER)
• Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)
  Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe
  The Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe is a multidisciplinary and cross-national panel database of micro data on health, socio-economic status as well as social and family networks of more than 45,000 individuals aged 50 or over...
  
  
• Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences (ASSH)
• Swiss Federal Statistical Office (SFSO)
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
  Swiss National Science Foundation
  The Swiss National Science Foundation is a science research support organization mandated by the Swiss Federal Government. The SNSF was established in 1952 as a foundation under private law. Its secretariat is based in Bern....