Abstract

The fundamental goal of the Research Data Centre of the Federal Statistical Office and the Research Data Centre of the Statistical Offices of the Federal States (RDC) is not only to provide access to official statistics microdata, but also to continuously improve and adapt the access to the changing needs of empirical science. In order to meet the broad range of needs of the empirically working scientific community, the RDC have offered different access paths since their founding, through which differently anonymised data products are made available.
The presentation will highlight the new developments and provide an overview of the current services offered by the RDC and the innovations in the areas of service and methodology. Main focus lies on the new pathway for german official statistics microdata access – the remote access system. The presentation highlights various challenges, such as data protection requirements and legal framework conditions, which must be considered. But it will provide also space for discussion regarding the further development of the RDCs of the Federal Statistical Office and the Statistical Offices of the Länder and enable an exchange with the scientific community.