Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) is a four-year project that aims to strengthen and harmonise social science research across Europe. Work Package 6 of this project, called "New forms of data – legal, ethical and quality issues", addresses major legal and ethical challenges facing cross-national social science research, which relies on access to large-scale data on an individual level. These issues are tackled with a particular focus on social surveys and the use of new data types in a social survey context, including biomarker, social media data and administrative data.
Tasks 6.4. of this Work Package, called "Consent and Biomarkers", is coordinated and conducted by SHARE. It aims to evaluate the experiences from consent in the 2015 SHARE dried blood spot collection and develop strategies for the inclusion of biological samples in population-based social survey databases and biobank policy rules in a transnational setting, taking into account all relevant data protection provisions (including requirements to obtain ethics approval). Furthermore, it aims to investigate the possibilities of 'broad consent' with regard to the storage and use of biological samples in different European countries as well as the consequences the European General Data Protection Regulation may have for scientific research in this regard.
The following publications have resulted from the work in this task:
• Schmidutz, Daniel (2019): Report on the Feasibility of a 'Broad Consent' Strategy with Regard to the Storage and Use of Biological Samples – Considerations Regarding the Inclusion of Biological Samples in European Population-Based Social Surveys. Deliverable D6.13 of the Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme GA No: 654221.
• Schmidutz, Daniel (2018): Report on Practical Strategies to Include Biological Samples in Population Based Social Surveys – Experiences and Conclusions of the Inclusion of Dried Blood Spot Samples in SHARE. Deliverable D6.12 of the Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme GA No: 654221.
• Weiss, Luzia M. (2017): Biomarker Consent Analyses. Deliverable D6.11 of the Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme GA No: 65422
• Schmidutz, Daniel (2016): Synopsis of Policy-Rules for Collecting Biomarkers in Social Surveys – Field Report on the Collection of Dried Blood Spot Samples in SHARE. Deliverable D6.10 of the Synergies for Europe's Research Infrastructures in the Social Sciences (SERISS) project, funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme GA No: 654221.
