CRONOS2 Welcome Survey edition 1.0

The CROss-National Online Survey 2 (CRONOS-2) is the world’s first large scale, cross-national, probability-based input-harmonised web panel. It took place in 2021-23 and was fielded in 12 countries - Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and the United Kingdom - from November 2021 until March 2023.

At the end of the main ESS Round 10 (2020-22) questionnaire, respondents in each of the 12 countries were invited to participate in the online panel across six waves (only waves 1 and 2 were completed in Hungary).

Questions for cross-national waves 1, 2, 4 and 5 were selected for inclusion following an open competition. Respondents were asked country-specific questions during waves 3 and 6 (country-specific waves), composed by ESS national teams in each country.

For the first time, a longitudinal component was added to the ESS via the CRONOS-2 (the modules on drivers of institutional trust, COVID-19 vaccination, perception of surveys, and financial wellbeing included this).

CRONOS-2 aimed to lay the foundations for a European Social Survey web panel, increasing web-interviewing capacity across Europe and developing a mature web interviewing infrastructure. It also aimed to provide the academic, research and user community with additional substantive, high-quality, comparative data to complement existing ESS data.

CRONOS-2 was developed following a harmonised methodological approach, maintaining survey characteristics across countries. The main aim was to prevent methodological variations amongst countries that could potentially affect measures and confound data analysis and interpretation in a comparative setting.

Regarding the recruitment process, we implemented a piggy-backing approach, using an existing survey infrastructure that followed the same harmonisation principle. The main advantages of this approach concern the maximisation of the investments of the main ‘parent’ face-to-face survey, the reduction of panel recruitment costs, and the possibility to draw on trained interviewers.

The panel target population was adults (18+), who have access to internet (those without internet access were not invited to join the panel), living in private households in Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

Participants were recruited after participating in ESS Round 10 (2020-22). This choice allowed recruitment of panel members from random probability samples.