The MEDem (Monitoring Electoral Democracy) Infrastructure Project has been officially included in the ESFRI Roadmap 2026, marking a decisive step towards its future implementation as a pan-European infrastructure, that is, as an ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium). 

MEDem was one of six new research infrastructure projects selected to be included in the European strategic roadmap – and the only one in the social sciences. 

For the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon (ICS-ULisboa), a founding partner of MEDem, this decision represents recognition of our capacity for scientific leadership in studies on democracy and elections. It also reinforces the importance of the national PASSDA infrastructure, which brings together around twenty social science research units and already forms part of two European scientific infrastructures at national level (ESS – European Social Survey and CESSDA – Social Science Data Archive), to which MEDem – coordinated nationally by Marina Costa Lobo – is now added.