Following in the footsteps of their Italian colleagues, CESSDA’s French Service Provider also achieved CoreTrustSeal Certification.

“I am very happy to see yet another CESSDA data archive successfully certified. Each new certification strengthens the CESSDA consortium as a whole and demonstrates our shared commitment to trustworthy, high-quality research data services,” said Mari Kleemola, leader of the CESSDA ERIC Trust & Landscape working group. The group helps oversee the certification process for CESSDA’s Service Providers, providing guidance along the way.

Progedo has been working towards certification for a while. The decision to apply was made already in 2018, and after a few rounds of internal assessments, evidence gathering, and application writing, a final application was submitted in June this year.


Mari Kleemola, leader of the CESSDA ERIC Trust & Landscape working group, photograohed at the CESSDA 50 confernece. 

During the CESSDA50 conference, Ami Katherine Saji, research engineer at Progedo, presented on the certification progress and what it would mean for Progedo to be certified: beyond the obligations laid out in the CESSDA Statutes, certification would also demonstrate and enhance the trustworthiness of Quetelet-Progedo, the French data repository catalogue for quantitative research in the social sciences and humanities.

During the process, Progedo found four main challenges they had to overcome:

• Some of their established procedures, processes and practices were not sufficiently documented.
• Some of the requirements for CTS were difficult to demonstrate.
• Work needed to be done to coordinate various technical and operational stakeholders.
• Sustainability needed to be demonstrated by clarifying responsibilities and making plans for continued compliance with the requirements.

Ami Saji presenting during the CESSDA50 conference.

This sharing of experiences and how issues were overcome was greatly appreciated by Mari Kleemola, who was full of praise for what the French team had accomplished:

Likewise, Ami and the rest of the Progedo team were equally grateful for the help, support, and feedback from the Trust & Landscape Working Group, as well as the support from the wider CESSDA Community.

During her presentation, Ami shared Progedo’s new list of 6 recommendations for a “smoother” CTS journey:

1. Plan early
   Define ownership and timelines, and ensure sufficient resources.
2. Allow for extra time and flexibility
   Anticipate a non-linear process that may take longer than expected.
3. Think organisation-wide
   Treat certification as a collective learning exercise.
4. Build on existing documentation
   Take stock of what you have and leverage it as much as possible.
5. Engage stakeholders continuously
   Maintain communication throughout the process (before, during, and after).
6. Lean on your communities
   Draw on peer experience and support networks.

“Certification is important, but it is not the goal itself. The real value lies in the continuous improvement of repository practices and in building services that researchers and the wider community can trust. Ultimately, this contributes to our shared goal of ensuring the long-term preservation of research data while enabling responsible and reliable access, sharing and reuse of data,” concluded Mari.

Director of Progedo, Nicolas Sauger, chairing a session during the CESSDA 50 conference.