CIMES stands for Centralising and Integrating Metadata from European Statistics. CIMES provides an overview of official micro data disseminated for research purposes by the national statistical institutes (NSI) across Europe. It is a database describing these data and the procedures for requesting access with information about the available types of files (Public Use Files, Scientific Use Files, Secure Use Files) .

It does not give a direct access to the data, it contains only metadata.

The first version of CIMES was developed in the framework of the European FP7 Data without Boundaries project (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/262608) by CASD/GENES . ADP, CED, CNRS-Réseau Quetelet, FORS, GESIS, RODA, ONS and UL contributed to CIMES creation by collecting and structuring the metadata for the time span of DwB project (2011-2015). In 2021 Eurostat moved the CIMES database to CROS platform to facilitate updates of countries' information. Eurostat would like to thank all CIMES developers and especially CASD for sharing the CIMES database and for all efficient collaboration.