In this episode, Tom Emery sits down with Lana Fani, Managing Director of the Netherlands Cohorts Consortium (NCC), to talk about her path into cohort research and what drew her to the NCC. Lana explains why cohort studies are such a powerful tool for health research as well as other fields, and how linking data across cohorts - the NCC's core ambition - could unlock findings a single study could seldom reach on its own. Tom and Lana also dig into an unexpected overlap: how health and social science data are connected, even when the two fields rarely talk to each other.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Lana Fani, MD, Managing Director of the Netherlands Cohorts Consortium
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.nwo.nl/projecten/fovyr99232
https://amazingerasmusmc.nl/epidemiologie/miljoenen-voor-landelijk-cohortonderzoek-naar-gezond-ouder-worden/

In this episode, Tom Emery talks with Jack Fitzgerald, a PhD candidate in economics at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the Tinbergen Institute. Jack tells us all about replication, and how he developed his passion for it. He points out that replication can be a very useful tool for early career researchers to understand how experts in the field think about and conduct research, down to their code. He and Tom dig into how the Replication Games could change the research culture and how they came to be. Jack also discusses the challenges and opportunities inherent to administrative data, and suggests how those data could be made more accessible for replication.

Affiliations:

• Jack Fitzgerald, PhD Candidate, School of Business and Economics, Ethics, Governance and Society; Tinbergen Institute
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.i4replication.org/
https://www.i4replication.org/blog/replication-games-in-secure-environments-replicating-research-with-dutch-administrative-data

Tom Emery speaks with Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology, Computer Science, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University and co-founder of SICSS (the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science). Nearly ten years on, Chris reflects on how SICSS grew from a single location to more than 50 worldwide, and the community that made it possible. He also explains why the part of the courses in which participants develop their own projects is the heart of the programme: a space where experimentation, and even failure, is part of learning. And with AI reshaping both education and the social sciences, Chris draws on the lessons of COVID-era adaptation to ask what it means to teach in the age of LLMs.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Chris Bail, Professor of Sociology, Computer Science, Political Science, and Public Policy at Duke University; Co-founder of the Summer Institutes in Computational Social Sciences
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://sicss.io/apply#faq
https://sicss.io/overview
https://github.com/compsocialscience/summer-institute
https://sicss.io/tom

In this episode, Tom Emery speaks with Konrad Turek, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University and a core team member of the Comparative Panel File (CPF). As the recipient of the first ODISSEI Open Science Award, Konrad reflects on how seeing science as a collective endeavour, rather than an individual pursuit, shaped the development of the CPF with a small group of collaborators. He also discusses how open-source harmonisation projects like the CPF enhance explanatory power by enabling meaningful comparisons across countries and survey studies.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Konrad Turek, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Tilburg University
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful Links:
https://cpfdata.com/
https://sociologicalscience.com/articles-v11-33-907/
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1673209/full

In this episode, Tom Emery is joined by Kasia Karpinska, Scientific Manager at ODISSEI, to walk through how researchers can get started with the ODISSEI infrastructure. Kasia shares practical insights on grant applications and using multiple ODISSEI facilities together. They also introduce the ODISSEI Early Career Board — a new initiative designed to support early-career researchers through training, development, and networking opportunities.

Affiliations:

• Dr. Kasia Karpinska, Scientific Manager of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science
• Dr. Tom Emery - Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful Links:
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/microdata-access-grant/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/cbs-microdata-discount/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/liss-panel-access/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/odissei-soda-fellowship/
https://odissei-data.nl/facility/grant-application-support/

In this episode, Tom Emery speaks with Adriënne Mendrik, CEO and Co-founder of Eyra, an open-source software services company specialising in solutions for scientific research. Adriënne shares her journey from computer science and medical imaging to building software that supports sustainable and transparent research practices. She also discusses Eyra’s work in benchmarking and data donation initiatives, the role of open source in research software, and how her team helps shape advancements in social science infrastructure.
Affiliations:

• Adriënne Mendrik, CEO and Co-founder of Eyra
• Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.eyra.co/

In this episode, we talk with Kristina Thompson from Wageningen University about the intersection of historical data and public health research. She explains why the Netherlands has such rich data resources, how historical trends illuminate health and society even today, and how automation can help improve the records. Kristina also shares her experience working with Delpher, the digitised historical newspaper archive, as well as other historical archival collections.
Affiliations:

• Kristina Thompson, Assistant Professor at the University of Wageningen.
• Dr. Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.delpher.nl/
https://www.wur.nl/nl/personen/km-kristina-thompson

In this episode, we talk with Mercè Crosas, Director of Computational Social Sciences at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center and President of CODATA, about how AI is shaping the future of social science infrastructure. She reflects on her path into computational social science, explains what research infrastructures do and why they matter, and discusses how AI is already improving data access, discovery, and analysis. Mercè also explores what “AI-ready” infrastructures look like, how tools like Dataverse may evolve, and what skills researchers will need in an AI-driven research landscape.

Affiliations:

• Dr Mercè Crosas – Director of Computational Social Science and Humanities (CSSH) Lab at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). She also serves on the CODATA board and co-founded Dataverse.
• Dr. Tom Emery – Executive Director of ODISSEI, the Dutch National Infrastructure for Social Science; Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration and Sociology of Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Useful links:
https://www.bsc.es/
https://codata.org/
https://dataverse.org/