Abstract

Access to timely and high-quality granular data is increasingly becoming a key factor for successful research projects. For accessing confidential administrative data, the introduction of Research Data Centres (RDCs) has been a big success story. RDCs are restricted-access facilities, often at the premises of the data owner, which provide accredited researchers with safe access to sensitive granular data. Although the benefits of an RDC are undisputed, there have been few attempts to measure them in concrete numbers. In this paper, we present different approaches and compare them. Using years of experience from one of the largest RDCs in Germany, we explain what significance the individual figures have and how they should be interpreted.