Research data forms the basis on which the IDPF assesses the effects and significance of participation processes and direct democracy. In order to enable a scientific categorisation of the practice of direct democracy and issue-related citizen participation, the IDPF systematically researches data in this area.

The IDPF plays a leading role in four continuous data collections:

1. The database Bürgerbegehren und Bürgerentscheide in Deutschland,
2. the Direct Democracy Navigator,
3. the database Energy Policy Citizen Participation Processes in NRW,
4. the Citizens' Councils database.

• The database Citizens' petitions and referendums in Germany documents and analyses all public discussions on direct-democratic procedures in cities, municipalities, (where legally possible) in rural districts as well as local districts and boroughs. The data forms the basis for empirical research on the local practice of direct democracy in Germany. The data is collected in cooperation with the Research Centre for Citizen Participation and Direct Democracy at the Philipps University of Marburg with the support of the association Mehr Demokratie e.V. A data set that is updated every two years also forms the basis of the citizens' petition report by Mehr Demokratie e.V. Contact person for this project: Dr Volker Mittendorf.
• The Direct Democracy Navigator documents and analyses the legal basis for popular initiatives, petitions for referendums, referendums and plebiscites worldwide. The Navigator also continuously documents new legal developments in over 110 countries around the world. The documentation is carried out in cooperation with Democracy International, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) for worldwide networking of democracy initiatives, IRI Europe, Europe's Global Direct Democracy Think-Tank and with the support of swissinfo.ch, the international service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation and people2power. Contact person for the project: Dr Klaus Hofmann (contact: khofmann@uni-wuppertal.de).
• The database Energy Policy Citizen Participation Processes in NRW records, documents and analyses public debates in the context of citizen participation on energy turnaround issues in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The documentation is carried out as part of the Virtual Institute (VI) "Transformation - Energy Transition NRW", a research network of various research institutes in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim of the database project is to determine background data on the socio-economic and cultural implications of the energy transition, taking into account the specific framework conditions in North Rhine-Westphalia. The Virtual Institute is funded by the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research (MIWF) in cooperation with the EnergyResearch.NRW cluster. Contact persons for the project: Nora Freier and Dr Volker Mittendorf.
• The Citizens' Councils database records and collects lot-based, deliberative citizen participation processes carried out in Germany from 1972 to the present day. The individual citizens' assemblies are recorded and categorised according to topic, type of procedure, institutional embedding and other categories. The entries in the database systematically bring together cases from other databases (e.g. OECD), supplemented by our own, scientifically based research, whose cases are adopted according to the structure. In line with a citizen science approach, once the database has been activated, citizens can independently edit and add entries, which will be included in the database after being reviewed by the IDPF in cooperation with practice partners.
  Contact person for this project: Prof. Dr Detlef Sack and the database project team