Election results for the 8th appointment period of the German Data Forum (RatSWD)

The results of the election for the 8^th appointment period (2023-2026) of the German Data Forum were announced on 27 March 2023 at the 9^th Conference for Social and Economic Data (9|KSWD). There were 18 candidates for election – scientists from numerous disciplines of the social, behavioural, and economic sciences. These were nominated or supported by 13 academic organisations entitled to nominate candidates based on the election regulations of the German Data Forum. The 8^th appointment period of the German Data Forum starts on the first of July 2023.

The following women were elected as scientific representatives on the German Data Forum:

•  Prof. Dr. Corinna Kleinert (Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg)
•  Prof. Dr. Poldi Kuhl (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
•  Prof. Dr. Ingrid Miethe (Justus Liebig University Giessen)
•  Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schneider (Bergische Universität Wuppertal)
•  Prof. Dr. Laura Seelkopf (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich)

The following men were elected as scientific representatives in the German Data Forum:

• Prof. Dr. Thorsten Faas (Free University of Berlin)
• Prof. Dr. Johannes Hartig (Goethe University Frankfurt)
• Prof. Dr. Hubert Knoblauch (Technical University Berlin)
• Prof. Dr. Fridtjof Nussbeck (University of Konstanz)
• Prof. Dr. Joachim Winter (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München)

The appointment proposals were determined in a secret ballot by 2,661 academics who had previously registered for the election. With a high voter turnout of 83% of all registered voters, the future members of the German Data Forum can enjoy broad legitimacy.
The incumbent chairs of the German Data Forum, Prof. Dr. Monika Jungbauer-Gans and Prof. Dr. Kerstin Schneider, would like to thank Dr. Daniel Vorgrimler (Federal Statistical Office) and Dr. Sylvia Zühlke (Statistical Offices of the Federal States) for chairing the election and all the candidates for their candidacy.

The German Data Forum is an advisory board of the Federal Government whose members are appointed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in agreement with the federal ministries. The German Data Forum is composed equally of ten empirically working scientists, whose appointment is based on election, and ten representatives of data-producing institutions from administration and science, who are asked by the BMBF to nominate individuals. An overview of the current composition of the German Data Forum can be found at: https://www.konsortswd.de/en/about/ratswd/members/

The German Data Forum (RatSWD) advises the federal government and the governments in the federal states on expanding and improving the research data infrastructure for the empirical social, behavioural and economic sciences since 2004. The German Data Forum (RatSWD) is made up of ten elected representatives from the social, behavioural, and economic disciplines who work together with ten representatives from key data producers.

The German Data Forum (RatSWD) is part of the Consortium for Social, Behavioural, Educational, and Economic sciences (KonsortSWD) in the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI). It acts as an institutionalised forum for dialogue between science and data producers, as well as developing recommendations and opinions. It is committed to supporting an infrastructure that enables sciences to have broad, flexible, and secure data access. These data are provided by state, science-based, and private-sector actors. The German Data Forum (RatSWD) has currently accredited 42 research data centres and encourages their cooperation.