Principal Investigators

Prof. Dr. Christian Haerpfer is Director of the Institute for Comparative Survey Research and Research Professor of Political Science at the University of Vienna. In the period 2016-2021, he was the Full Professor of Government in the Department of Government and Society at the United Arab Emirates University UAEU in Al-Ain (UAE). In the period 2004-2016, he was Full Professor of Political Science and holder of a Named Chair, the ‘Established First Chair in Politics’ at the University of Aberdeen (UK). Since 2013, he is the President of the World Values Survey Association (WVSA). The World Values Survey has been conducted in 120 countries in 7 waves since 1981. Prof. Haerpfer was Founding Chair of the Research Committee No 17 on ‘Comparative Public Opinion’ of the International Political Science Association IPSA in 2009-2018. Prof. Haerpfer is Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts in Salzburg (Austria) and Member of the Executive Committee and Trustee of the European Consortium for Political Research ECPR at the University of Essex in Colchester (UK) in 2021-2027.  Prof. Haerpfer is Founding Director of the ‘Eurasia Barometer - EAB’ in Vienna (Austria), which analyses social and political change in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia in 3 waves in the period 2000 – 2021. Prof. Haerpfer is Founding Director of the ‘New Democracy Barometer – NDB’ in Vienna (Austria), which studied political and social transformations in post-Communist Europe in 6 wave s between 1990 and 1999. He is currently Visiting Professor in Political Science at the University of Almeria (Spain) and V.N.Karazin National University of Kharkiv (Ukraine). He has also been a Visiting Professor in Political Science at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK), Glasgow Caledonian University (UK), University of Kyiv (Ukraine), Glasgow University (UK), CEU-Central European University in Prague (Czech Republic) and University of Salzburg (Austria). He has received Residential Fellowships from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C. (USA), the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), the University of Essex in Colchester (UK) and the Leverhulme Trust at Glasgow Caledonian University (UK). In 2000-2014 he has successfully coordinated the following projects “Living Conditions, Lifestyles and Health” (FP5), “Health in Times of Transition: Trends in Population Health and Health Policies in CIS Countries” (FP7). 

Prof. Dr. Pippa Norris is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Comparative Survey Research (Vienna, Austria). She is a comparative political scientist who has taught at Harvard for more than two decades. She is Laureate Fellow and Professor of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney, the McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and Director of the Electoral Integrity Project. Her honors include award of the 2014 Karl Deutsch award by IPSA, the 2011 Johan Skytte prize in political science, with Ronald Inglehart, the 2011 Kathleen Fitzpatrick Australian Laureate Fellowship, the Sir Isiah Berlin Prize and a ‘special recognition’ award by the UK Political Science Association, and a Doctor honoris causa by the University of Edinburgh and Warwick University. Her research addresses in comparative perspective the issues of political trust, public opinion and elections, democratic institutions and cultures, gender politics, and political communications in many countries worldwide. In terms of professional service, she has been elected to executive councils APSA, IPSA, the PSA, and the WVS. Within APSA, she has been president of the Women and Politics Research Section, the Political Communications Section, the EPOVB section. In terms of public service, she has served as the Director of the Democratic Governance Group at the UNDP in New York and as an expert consultant for many international bodies including the UN, UNDP, UNESCO, UN Women, NDI, the Council of Europe, IFES, International IDEA, the OSCE, the World Bank, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the UK Electoral Commission.