We all leave behind a rich digital footprint—offering social scientists unprecedented opportunities to understand human behavior, social dynamics, and cultural trends. In particular, data donation has emerged as a central method for collecting digital trace data: it enables researchers to partner with individuals who voluntarily and securely donate their personal digital data for academic research, often combined with survey or interview responses about their opinions, beliefs, and characteristics. However, the immense potential of such data is often constrained by concerns around privacy and data ethics. Without clear protocols and infrastructure, datasets can remain siloed in local university archives, limiting their accessibility and long-term scientific value.

Now, a team of researchers across Dutch universities— including dr. Felicia Loecherbach, prof. Jessica Piotrowski, and prof. Theo Araujo at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR) —has been awarded a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to establish cross-institutional standards for the secure and ethical collection, processing, documentation, reuse, and archiving of individual-level digital trace data. The project is part of the Thematic Digital Competence Center (TDCC) for the social sciences and builds on both the Dutch National Research Infrastructure and the European Data Donation Infrastructure (D3I). It aims to ensure that datasets are made Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR), while respecting participants' privacy and promoting transparency.

The interdisciplinary team includes social scientists, legal scholars, ethicists, data stewards, and research engineers. Together, they will tackle the challenges of digital trace data—from conceptual design to the practical implementation of open-source software that can be used across institutions.

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