AUSSDA’s Matthias Reiter-Pázmándy has been elected as the new chair of CESSDA’s General Assembly. Sikt’s Vigdis Kvalheim replaces him as the vice chair.

Reiter-Pázmándy serves as Deputy Head of the Department for Social Sciences and Humanities within the Directorate General for Scientific Research and International Relations at the Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Science, and Research (BMBWF). He is also a member of AUSSDA’s steering board, where he supports the organization’s management and advises on strategic and future developments.

With a background in sociology and experience in social and market research, Reiter-Pázmándy has been actively engaged in European research infrastructure projects in the social sciences and humanities. He represents Austria as a delegate in both the Programme Committee of Cluster 2 in Horizon Europe and SHARE ERIC.

Elected as Chair at the 16th General Assembly meeting on October 17, 2024, he expressed his enthusiasm for the role:

“I am very honoured to have been elected as the Chair of the CESSDA General Assembly. The appointment fits very well with my personal ambition to make data more accessible for research in general and for the social sciences in particular. I believe that CESSDA has a lot of potential for the future and that its data assets will make important contributions to scientific research. Collaboration across countries and with European institutions in the field of data will be an important task,” said Reiter-Pázmándy about the appointment.

Vigdis Namtvedt Kvalheim takes over as Vice Chair

Reiter was previously Vice Chair of the General Assembly. That position is now held by Vigdis Namtvedt Kvalheim. She has been a delegate to the General Assembly since 2018 and the Service provider Forum since its start. 

Over the years, Kvalheim has been actively involved in several CESSDA EC-funded projects and represented CESSDA in various contexts, most recently on the board of EOSC-Nordic.

She has more than 40 years’ experience in CESSDA’s field of work. She has been, and continues to be, actively involved in infrastructure initiatives at political, strategic, and operational levels, both nationally and internationally. Her international work is primarily within CESSDA, but also includes collaboration with other SSH infrastructures on the ESFRI roadmap and various research infrastructures.

Vigdis Namtvedt Kvalheim is director of the Research and Knowledge Resources Division at SIKT, CESSDA’s Norwegian service provider. Her division is, among other things, responsible for delivering library systems to every university and college in Norway.