RatSWD panel session at the 2026 VfS Annual Conference in Innsbruck

On 15 September, the German Data Forum is organising a panel session at the VfS Annual Conference in Innsbruck, where it will discuss the Research Data Act and its implementation with experts from academia and the data production sector.

Under the Research Data Act (FDG), the German Centre for Microdata (DZM) is being established within the Federal Statistical Office in Germany. The DZM is intended to grant the academic community access to linkable microdata relevant to the social and economic sciences. One of the models for this was the Austrian Micro Data Centre (AMDC), which has been making data from Austria available to the academic community since 2022. This session aims to provide an update on the current status of the FDG legislative process and offer an outlook on the future structure of the DZM: What can we learn from the AMDC? What mistakes should we avoid? Which innovations will researchers actually experience in three years’ time? What will be possible in the short term, and what will still take years? How much will it cost users? What technical infrastructure can researchers expect? Where are we overestimating future possibilities? We want to discuss the opportunities and challenges with representatives of the future DZM, the AMDC, data holders and users. This programme item is organised by the German Data Forum (RatSWD), which advises the German Federal Government and the state governments on matters relating to the expansion and improvement of the research data infrastructure.

Moderation: Prof. Dr. Hendrik Jürges, Bergische Universität Wuppertal 

Panellists: 
Dr. Hanna Brenzel, Statistisches Bundesamt
Univ.Prof. Dr. Martin Halla, WU Wien
Tobias Herzog, Statistik Austria
Dr. Marie-Christine Laible, Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge 

When: 15 September, 9.00–10.30 am