SAS International Prize 2023 for Professor Rory Fitzgerald
Scientific Council of Slovak Academy of Sciences awarded the International Prize in the field of social and cultural sciences to Professor Rory Fitzgerald of City, University of London, the current Director of the European Social Survey European Research Infrastructure (ESS ERIC). Prof. Fitzgerald made a significant contribution to ensuring the continuity of the ESS project in Slovakia. Thanks to his constant support of the Slovak coordination team from the Institute of Social Sciences of the Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS (SvÚ CSPV SAS, v. v. i.), the Slovak Republic became a full member of ESS ERIC in 2018. The ceremony of presenting the SAS International Prize will take place on Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. in the Hall of Mirrors of the Primate's Palace in Bratislava.
Professor Rory Fitzgerald specializes in social surveys, survey design and questionnaire development and testing. He has a PhD in sociology from the City, University of London and is co-editor of the Survey Research Methods Journal. Together with other members of the ESS coordination team, he received the 2005 Descartes Prize for "excellent collaborative scientific research", and in 2020, the ESS consortium received the Lijphart/Przeworski/Verba (LPV) Dataset Award 2020 from the American Political Science Association (APSA). Since 2013, he has been the Director of ESS ERIC. He replaced the late Professor Sir Roger Jowell.
ESS ERIC is an international academic survey that examines the opinions and attitudes of European citizens towards various areas of life and society. In 2023 we commemorate 20 years of the European Social Survey (ESS ERIC) in Slovakia. In the same way, the cooperation between the Slovak ESS coordination team led by Denisa Fedáková, Michal Kentoš and Jozef Výrost (SvÚ CSPV SAS v.v.i.) and the Director of ESS ERIC Professor Rory Fitzgerald also lasts for two decades.
"In the national context, I consider it important to mention that Professor Fitzgerald played an important role in negotiations to ensure the continuity of the ESS project in Slovakia. Without his tireless efforts and activities, Slovakia's participation in this top international social survey would have been significantly limited," emphasizes Director of Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS, Denisa Fedáková.
For Slovak researchers, participation in ESS ERIC provides opportunities to constantly learn and apply the highest methodological and research procedures in their scientific work. The ESS data serve as an excellent "laboratory" of social sciences, and its strength is that it takes into consideration the participation of as many and as wide a spectrum of European countries as possible. Currently, more than 218,000 data users are registered worldwide (almost 600 from Slovakia), and more than 6,000 scientific publications have used this data.
Professor Fitzgerald maintains close working and collegial contact with the CSPV SAV team. He participated in three national ESS conferences in Slovakia in 2006, 2012 and 2016 and also contributed significantly to raising awareness of both the ESS survey and the ESS ERIC consortium.
Slovak data and all ESS data are freely available here.
Related links:
https://www.europeansocialsurvey.org/about/country/slovakia/
https://svusav.sk/projekty/europska-socialna-sonda
Spracovala: Katarína Gáliková
Foto: archiv CSPV SAV, v. v. i.