Nicolas Sauger has been appointed as the new Directeur of the French SP for France, PROGEDO, as of January 1st this year.

Nicolas has been a Professor of Political science at Sciences Po (Paris, France). He was before the Director of another French SSH data archive, the CDSP. As a political scientist, Nicolas has been working in the field of elections and electoral systems, political attitudes, and party competition. Nicolas has also been involved in several surveys, especially the European social survey, now as a member of its Methods advisory board, but also as the PI of the French election studies.

Coming to PROGEDO, Nicolas has to build up on the excellent work of the team of his predecessors. He strives to keep on developing the array of activities sustained by PROGEDO both in terms of animating the academic communities and developing research and innovation. New national conferences will be launched, in spring 2025, one about quantitative methods for the social sciences and the other on comparative surveys. Work groups will be created on several topics, from data documentation standards to innovations in data collection modes.

CESSDA will remain of course at the center of PROGEDO’s strategy. The services it proposes are of great value for PROGEDO’s users as well as a key opportunity to develop skills and expertise. PROGEDO is also very keen to contribute more to CESSDA. Already being part of the Trust and Landscape work group, efforts will be made in the near future to participate in more. Among potential suggestions for further activities, the creation of a job market for the various professions in data archives could be of interest as well as coordination activities to inboard SPs in grant applications. In complement to CTS certifications efforts and cross border short term visits, ‘visit committees’ could also be envisioned both as a mean to get explicit feedback on actually observed practices as well as a way as a way to discover other institutions traditions and innovations.