Academic collaboration
in Statistics Portugal’s National Data Infrastructure
Statistics Portugal is a NSI that produces, in an independent manner, high-quality official statistical information that is relevant for society. Through the National Data Infrastructure (NDI), Statistics Portugal promotes the coordination, analysis, innovation and dissemination of national statistics and ensures integrated data storage.
The aim of the National Data Infrastructure is to:
provide single point access to several types of data and make it available to multiple purposes and users
integrate multiple data sources (administrative, survey and other data)
increase the analytical capacity and flexibility in data management
harness new data sources for statistical and scientific purposes
increase timeliness and relevance
promotes transparency and accessibility
support for innovation and research
The access and integration of multiple data sources is being boosted by the development of NDI. One of the most strategic projects for Statistics Portugal in the next few years is the implementation for Administrative Census. In recent years, important sets of administrative data are being integrated, such as Civil Register; Tax register; Social Security Register; State Pension and Work Fund Register; Unemployment Register; Immigration register; Education Register; Private Employment Register.
External academic researchers on contract to Statistics Portugal help to provide the skills and knowledge need to meet key development challenges, including research on the use of administrative data.
Building continuous partnerships
Statistics Portugal reached out to the Portuguese Science Foundation (FCT), which organises calls for proposals to fund research projects by teams of researchers, promoting both annual calls for applications in all scientific areas and calls for proposals aimed at specific scientific themes and areas.
In 2022, it submitted the ‘Inequality, individual behaviour, and policy reforms: evidence from administrative tax records’ project, which included three experts from Statistics Portugal. The project kicked-off in January 2023 and lasts three years.
So far, several working meetings have been held between the research team and Statistics Portugal, marking a successful collaboration.
To further strengthen its relationship with academia, Statistics Portugal is a member of EMOS, a network of master’s programmes that provides postgraduate education in official statistics at European level.
EMOS connects statistical institutes with universities across Europe to:
advance postgraduate education in official statistics and data science at universities across Europe
educate students to become highly skilled statisticians with expertise in official statistics
facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experience between the European producers of official statistics and lecturers, researchers and students in this field.
Universities, which offer EMOS-labelled master’s programmes, partner with NSIs to:
offer internships
mentor master's theses and research projects
promote official statistics among students
Statistics Portugal has joined EMOS in partnership with the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto and is involved in their master’s degree in data analytics. The lecturers are experts in sampling, machine learning and statistics, and teach a range of topics from basic statistical concepts to advanced forecasting models.
In addition, Statistics Portugal plays a dual role in this collaboration, serving as both a trainer and internship supervisor.
This has proved to be a fruitful collaboration with the main results as follows:
2023: Three EMOS graduates, one of whom completed their internship and thesis at Statistics Portugal.
2024: One EMOS candidate, who worked with administrative data
2025: two EMOS candidates will do their internship at Statistics Portugal in the areas of Geographical Information Systems and Using LLM for dealing with Privacy Preserving.
Training courses
Statistics Portugal offers training courses, in collaboration with major universities. In 2022, the courses included ‘Econometrics’ which attracted 26 participants, and the first edition of ‘Artificial Intelligence for Businesses,’ which had 24 participants.
In 2023, Statistics Portugal expanded its courses to include ‘Macroeconometrics,’ attracting 24 participants, and the second edition of ‘Artificial Intelligence for Businesses,’ in which 21 people participated.
In 2023, Statistics Portugal started the program on Data Science Training for the National Statistical System and Public Administration, where 24 training actions involving more than 6.5 thousand training hours have been provided, so far. The actions covered issues such as Machine Learning, Python for Official Statistics, R for Data Science. Deep Learning, Social Network Analysis. SQL and Databases, Data Visualization with Power BI, among many others.
Data access for research
Statistics Portugal provides free access for researchers from surveys used in the production of official statistics. Additionally, access to administrative data may be granted with the authorization of the data holders. Up to now, Tax Authority, under a protocol, enabled Statistics Portugal to make anonymised microdata accessible to the scientific community. Statistics Portugal is working to include similar authorization provisions in protocols with other data providers.
Three access modes are possible according to the type of microdata: Fully anonymised data files; Ready-made tables and Data files only available in Safe Centre environment. Additionally, Statistics Portugal also have prepared some Public Use Files.
In December 2024, 72 (seventy-two) micro-databases were available for scientific research purposes.
Next steps
Statistics Portugal’s partnership with academia highlights a productive and successful collaboration.
The expertise and skills of resident researchers have significantly benefited Statistics Portugal’s activities, addressing development needs and introducing new approaches. Through this collaboration, innovative methodologies and research can be integrated into official statistics, ensuring the relevance and accuracy of data collected and analysed.
Furthermore, this collaboration fosters a continuous exchange of knowledge, which not only enhances the capabilities of Statistics Portugal but also contributes to the professional development of academic researchers.
To build on this success, Statistics Portugal is intensifying its efforts to strengthen ties with academia by launching several new initiatives. This commitment reflects its dedication to investing in and enhancing academic collaborations.
Last update: January 2025