Our experts offer advice about survey data collection and survey data analysis to academic, governmental, and commercial researchers in a variety of disciplines. We offer consultation on specific aspects of the survey process as well as on your overall research design. Our aim is to help you find suitable solutions to reach your research objectives with the resources available. See hereafter some examples of this work:

Improvement of the questionnaire: “Enquesta a la Joventut de Catalunya” (March 2020 – June 2020)  

The “Enquesta a la joventut de Catalunya” is conducted by the Generalitat de Catalunya every five years and aims to gather sociodemographic data among the youth. They also intend to find out what the attitudes and behaviour of adolescents and young adults are, especially regarding education and work. RECSM researchers advised on questionnaire design in order to increase participation rates and to improve efficiency of the online version of the survey.

Responsibles at RECSM: Diana Zavala-Rojas

Online elite survey for the project: “CAScading Climate risks: towards ADaptive and resilient European Societies (CASCADES)”

Project leader: Oriol Puig, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs

The main objective of CASCADES is to analyse the trade, political and financial channels through which climate change impacts outside Europe might cascade into Europe, significantly altering Europe’s risk exposure, over the short, medium and long-term; and to support the design of a coherent European policy framework to address these risks.

Among other tasks, CIDOB’s work within CASCADES focuses on conducting a case study on climate change, livelihoods, food security and fragility in the Western Sahel, particularly Niger and Mali. As part of this study, an online survey was carried out. RECSM members advised on the survey and questionnaire design and supported the analyses after data collection.

Responsibles at RECSM: Carlos Poses, Wiebke Weber

REFORMED Reforming Schools Globally: A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Autonomy and Accountability Policies in the Education Sector (February 2018 – February 2020)

Project leader: Antoni Verger, Department of Sociology, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

The REFORMED project analyzes how and why School Autonomy with Accountability (SAWA) policies are being adopted and re-formulated by policy actors operating at different scales, and inquires into the institutional frameworks and policy enactment processes that explains the different effects of SAWA at the school level  (with a focus on the Netherlands, Spain, Norway, Chile, and Brazil). A robust and multi-scalar methodological strategy that combines quantitative - including a survey for school principals and teachers - and qualitative methods that contributes to advancing such an innovative approach. The principal investigator is Toni Verger, Department of Sociology of the Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona and the funding entity is the ERC – European Research Council. Researchers at RECSM supported the project in the development of the survey.

Responsible at RECSM: Wiebke Weber

Survey for the project “Food information for the general public” (March 2019 – October 2019) 

Project leader: Gonzalo Casino, Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

The survey carried out in the project aims to study the general public's perception of food information received through the media, the internet, and social networks. Specifically, six aspects are considered: 1) interest in food issues, 2) concern for some problems, 3) perception of the personal level of information, 4) information channels and formats, 5) perception of the ability to understand information, and 6) credibility of professionals who report on food. The survey was complemented by a focus group. Funding entity: Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food, Generalitat of Catalonia, Spain.

Responsible at RECSM: Wiebke Weber 

Web survey for “The tourist on the web: informational habits and destination choice (ITOURIST)” (June 2016 – November 2017)

Project leader: Rafael Pedraza Jiménez, Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

The main objective of the ITOURIST project is to study the informational habits of potential tourists across the Web. The study arises from a dual perspective: (1) it focuses on the exploration of tourists' informational habits on the web using a web survey and (2) it analyzes whether potential tourists perceived the values and brand image that the tourist destination wants to convey. Principal investigators is José Fernández Cavia and Rafael Pedraza Jiménez, Department of Communication, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, and the funding entity is the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Reference: CSO2014-59896- P).

Reference: Fernández-Cavia, J., Vinyals-Mirabent, S., Fernández-Planells, A., Weber, W. and Pedraza-Jiménez, R. (2020). “Tourist information sources at different stages of the travel experience”. El profesional de la información, 29 (2). https://doi.org/10.3145/epi.2020.mar.19

Responsible at RECSM: Wiebke Weber 

Intergenerational perception of the utility of major transport projects (January 2016 - December 2016)

Project leader: Domingo Penyalver and Mateu Turró, CENIT Science for Transport, International Center for Numerical Methods in Engineering (CIMNE) and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (Spain).

Summary of project: The benefits of major transport infrastructure investments span several decades, but also the costs. A novel model is developed to incorporate the sensitivity of society to the effects of a major transport infrastructure project. A survey was carried out in Catalonia, Spain to validate that model. Evidence suggests that future impacts of transport investments, both future socio-economic net benefits and financial burdens, should be considered less important than immediate (present) outcomes in the decision-making process.

Reference: Penyalver, D., Turró, M., & Zavala-Rojas, D. (2017). Intergenerational perception of the utility of major transport projects. Research in Transportation Economics. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.11.001

Responsible at RECSM: Diana Zavala-Rojas

SAHWA Youth Survey 2016 (January 2014 - March 2017)

Project leader: Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB)

Summary of the project: The SAHWA Youth Survey 2016, which is a major output of the SAHWA Project, aims to study youth prospects and perspectives in a context of multiple social, economic and political transitions in five Arab Mediterranean countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, and Lebanon. RECSM members were involved in questionnaire design and fieldwork monitoring and were leading the data harmonization. The SAHWA Project received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development, and demonstration under grant agreement nº 613174. For more information about the SAHWA Project see: http://www.sahwa.eu

Responsible at RECSM: Teresa Queralt, Wiebke Weber