The Kohli Foundation for Sociology is delighted to announce the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) as the 2026 laureate of the Infrastructure Prize for Sociology.
As a data infrastructure, SOEP is a leading force in supporting the quality, originality, significance, and rigor of sociological research. Its versatile applicability encourages researchers to build interdisciplinary teams and to explore their research questions from multiple perspectives.
SOEP serves as a role model for data collection and analysis beyond Germany and makes a substantial contribution to advancing sociological knowledge at its core.

We are already looking forward to the award ceremony at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) on November 3–4, 2026.

About SOEP

The Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) is one of the largest and longest-running longitudinal household surveys worldwide. Every year, approximately 30,000 people in 20,000 households are interviewed for the SOEP study. The survey has been conducted since 1984. The SOEP is also a research-driven infrastructure based at DIW Berlin. The SOEP team prepares survey data for use by researchers around the globe. Studies based on SOEP data examine many key aspects of societal change. As part of the Leibniz Association, the SOEP receives funding from the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) and from Germany’s state (Länder) governments.

source: https://www.diw.de/en/diw_01.c.615551.en/research_infrastructure__socio-economic_panel__soep.html