The ELIPSS Panel is funded by the French National Research Agency (ANR-10-EQPX-19-01) in the context of the Investments for the Future programme which aims to support research, higher education and innovation. ELIPSS is part of the larger project entitled Data, Infrastructure, Methods of Investigation in the Social Sciences and Humanities (DIME-SHS), coordinated by Laurent Lesnard (and Nicolas Sauger from September 2017) in Sciences Po and bringing together seven French research institutions: the French Institute for Demographic Studies (INED), the Groupe des Écoles Nationales d'Économie et Statistique (GENES), the Paris Descartes University, the engineering school Télécom ParisTech, EDF R&D and the PROGEDO.

DIME-SHS aims at providing France with a new infrastructure to collect, to enhance and to disseminate data for humanities and social sciences. It is structured around three instruments:

• DIME Quanti for data produced through the ELIPSS panel,
• DIME Quali for the qualitative surveys databank beQuali,
• DIME Web for data from the web.

The implementation of the ELIPSS panel has two main objectives:

• allow researchers to conduct surveys on subjects that are not covered by French public statistics,

• free public research of the need for private middlemen to produce questionnaire surveys based on random sampling, while diminishing costs and collection times (by using self-administered Internet surveys).

It aims also at reinforcing partnerships, still underdeveloped, between Universities and National Statistics Institutes. Indeed, the INED is one of the partners of DIME-SHS and its Surveys Department is actively involved in the ELIPSS panel. The INSEE takes part by having drawn the sample from the census and by participating to the board which selects the surveys.

The ELIPSS panel differs from similar systems used abroad by using mobile Internet as a principal method of collection. A touchscreen tablet and unlimited 3G/4G plan are provided to all panel members in exchange for their participation. Thus, they can answer the questionnaires even if they do not have an Internet connection.

This new technology was selected for both methodological and practical reasons :

• The idea is to take advantage of the possibilities offered by the Internet (images, video…) and mobility to update certain survey techniques (travel study, budget-time logs, etc.).

• The tablets offer many advantages over computer surveys. Because their interface is more intuitive, they provide simplified Internet access to people unfamiliar with new technologies. Mobile web access also gives panel members more flexibility in completing surveys (they can choose the time and place).

• This system avoids installing any equipment at home.