DIGSSCORE – Norwegian Citizen Panel

The Norwegian Citizen Panel is the first fully digital infrastructure for questionnaire surveys in Norwegian research.

Norway is one of the most digitalised societies in the world. More than 95% of the Norwegian population has internet access at home or at work. This presents great opportunities for research, which the University of Bergen has taken advantage of by establishing an innovative digital Core Facility (DIGSSCORE) with financial support from the Trond Mohn Foundation. DIGSSCORE comprises the Norwegian Citizen Panel and the Citizen Lab. The Norwegian Citizen Panel is the first fully digital infrastructure for questionnaire surveys in Norwegian research. The Citizen Lab is a professional, fully equipped data lab with 32 work stations, located in Bergen city centre.

The Core Facility is used to generate large amounts of data in the form of survey data, panel data, survey experimental data and data from lab experiments. Around 60 researchers and research groups in Norway and around the world are directly affiliated with the DIGSSCORE facility, using the Norwegian Citizen Panel and the Citizen Lab. Many more researchers and students use the data that these facilities generate, the data from the Citizen Panel are available through the NSD.

The Norwegian Citizen Panel is organized in thematic research units, so most data are collected within these themes: 1) Political behaviour and democracy, 2) Migration, extremism and diversity, 3) Climate and environment, 4) Political communication, 5) Health and 6) Territorial democracy and reforms. In addition, there are openings for “open category”, where all kinds of questions can be fielded. In the Citizen Lab, several social science areas are present, and mainly Economics and Psychology.

Dean Knut Helland said at the opening of the Citizen Panel at DIGSSCORE: ‘This is the best thing I’ve been involved in in my 7 1/2 years as dean.’