LABORATORY FOR MONITORING SOCIAL COHESION POLICIES

The Laboratory for Monitoring Social Cohesion Policies was established in May 2004 and was further developed within the framework of the research project “Developing infrastructures for the Establishment of a ‘ Social Data Pole’ in the Areas of Social Inequality and Social Exclusion” (2005-2007), funded by the O.P. Competitiveness. The project ‘s aim was to set up the infrastructure for the support and enrichment of the knowledge base in specific subject areas, in view of becoming a reference point for the evolvement of research focused on social integration and social cohesion in Greece and Europe. For this purpose a number of databases were designed in the following fields:

  • Labour Market
  • Social and Economic Inequalities
  • Modernisation of Mental Health & De-institutionalisation
  • Individuals with Disabilities
  • Demographic Developments
  • Immigration
  • Social Economy.


Currently, the Laboratory forms a consolidated INSPO project and functions as its Institutional Digital Repository; all Institute research staff are members of the Laboratory and contribute to its content. Thus, it is the collection point of the institute’s research production, consisting of microdata, metadata, macrodata, publications by INSPO researchers and reference material. In particular, the databases are enriched with statistics, variable definitions, indicators, commented bibliography, web links, research results, questionnaires, working papers, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The Laboratory’s technical infrastructure is located at INSPO where a physical working environment is offered to EKKE and visitor researchers for the analysis of microdata and the use of research produced at INSPO, while cooperative projects with University Departments are initiated and promoted for training and further research by young researchers.The Laboratory’s databases can be accessed through the EKKE intranet; laboratory material is also publicised to the research community through a series of activities as, workgroups, theme-focused seminars, working papers, policy application reports, etc. In addition, a series of datasets are disseminated to EKKE researchers through the EKKE intranet facilities; these datasets currently refer to: the labour market, demographic trends and income distribution, whilst new ones are under way, on the socio-professional re-integration of disabled people, the social economy, and particular aspects of the welfare state in Greece. At a later stage there is provision for dissemination of datasets to the wide research community through the EKKE Social Data Bank Infrastructure.


The Laboratory produces 2 electronic publications: 

  1. “Contemporary Issues” (in Greek only); 
  2. “Social Cohesion Bulletin” (in English)