NIMMO - Telepanel
In 1988 the Dutch Science Foundation had changed its strategy towards social science research. It had opened the possibility of large grants for large projects. Given this possibility I had applied for a grant for a large scale Multi-trait Multi-Method study in the Netherlands using the Telepanel approach with 2000 households.
Besides that Henk Stronkhorst informed me about the DOSES program of Eurostat where one could apply for new informatic projects relevant for the statistical offices. I also used this opportunity and suggested, together with Poulicos Prastacos of a Greek research group on Crete and Manuel Marti Recober of a Spanish research group of the UPC in Barcelona, to make a complete automatic system for information processing (CASIP) applied on data collection for income and expenditure research.
Besides that Henk Stronkhorst informed me about the DOSES program of Eurostat where one could apply for new informatic projects relevant for the statistical offices. I also used this opportunity and suggested, together with Poulicos Prastacos of a Greek research group on Crete and Manuel Marti Recober of a Spanish research group of the UPC in Barcelona, to make a complete automatic system for information processing (CASIP) applied on data collection for income and expenditure research.
My group would realize the data collection, the Greek group a data base for the collected data and the Spanish group would take care of the data analysis. The developed procedure would be tested in the Netherlands using the Telepanel. In order to test the portability of the developed procedure to other countries, the softeware would also be tested in Portugal using computer assisted personal interviewing (capi). This test would be organized by Statistics Portugal.
Both proposals were positively evaluated but the Dutch Science foundation had stated as a requirement that the University of Amsterdam should invest in this project the same amount which would add upto a budget of more than 2.8 million guilders. From the grant of Eurostat for the project my research group would get nearly 1 million guilders. This means that we would get incomparably large grants for research compared with previous subsidies.
A big challange
Given this situation I realized that I had an unique opportunity to create a research institute that was completely new in the social sciences. However I also realized that it would require very much work and that it could also go wrong if we would not get enough commercial research because the commercial research should cover the costs of our scientific research.
An alternative that I considered as well was to ask a commercial firm, like NIPO, to build up the new telepanel for commercial use while the university would pay for the research that would be done with the panel. In that case the risk for the university would be minimal. The disadvantage would have been lack of control of quality and that after a few years this research would stop when the budget would be spent.
The board of the Faculty and the board of the University agreed with the requirements of the Science Foundation that the University would double the investment.
The plan was to ask the participants in the telepanel every week to participate in a survey of at most 30 minutes. This means that there was enough space for commercial as well as scientific research using the panel in this way.
The board of the PSCW faculty of the University of Amsterdam decided to create a commercial research institute for these activities called "The Netherlands Institute for Social and Market Research" abreviated as NIMMO.
Due to this development I returned for my research back to the university and took on me the heavy responsability of scientific director of this institute while the financial responsability was formally in the hand of the director of the Faculty although I of course had also an important role in this aspect of the institute.
Both proposals were positively evaluated but the Dutch Science foundation had stated as a requirement that the University of Amsterdam should invest in this project the same amount which would add upto a budget of more than 2.8 million guilders. From the grant of Eurostat for the project my research group would get nearly 1 million guilders. This means that we would get incomparably large grants for research compared with previous subsidies.
A big challange
Given this situation I realized that I had an unique opportunity to create a research institute that was completely new in the social sciences. However I also realized that it would require very much work and that it could also go wrong if we would not get enough commercial research because the commercial research should cover the costs of our scientific research.
An alternative that I considered as well was to ask a commercial firm, like NIPO, to build up the new telepanel for commercial use while the university would pay for the research that would be done with the panel. In that case the risk for the university would be minimal. The disadvantage would have been lack of control of quality and that after a few years this research would stop when the budget would be spent.
The board of the Faculty and the board of the University agreed with the requirements of the Science Foundation that the University would double the investment.
The plan was to ask the participants in the telepanel every week to participate in a survey of at most 30 minutes. This means that there was enough space for commercial as well as scientific research using the panel in this way.
The board of the PSCW faculty of the University of Amsterdam decided to create a commercial research institute for these activities called "The Netherlands Institute for Social and Market Research" abreviated as NIMMO.
Due to this development I returned for my research back to the university and took on me the heavy responsability of scientific director of this institute while the financial responsability was formally in the hand of the director of the Faculty although I of course had also an important role in this aspect of the institute.