The ISSP Ukraine team — representatives of Rating Group and the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine — took part in the General Meeting of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), held in Prague on 25–29 April 2026.

The event brought together researchers from 33 countries to discuss future ISSP thematic modules, methodological approaches, and the development of international cooperation in the field of comparative social research.

As a reminder, in February 2025, Ukraine — represented through the partnership between Rating Group and the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine — became the 45th member country of the ISSP. In the same year, Ukraine conducted a survey under the “Digital Societies” module. The results were presented at the 5th Congress of the Sociological Association of Ukraine in November 2025.

Ukraine was represented at the General Meeting by ISSP Ukraine co-coordinators Igor Tyshchenko, founder of Rating Group; Yevhen Krotevych, Head of Analytics at Rating Group; and Yelena Kovalska, PhD in Sociology, Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Social Structures of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

“Representing Ukraine at the ISSP General Meeting is the result our team has been working towards for two years. It is not only about formally securing Ukraine’s membership in the ISSP community, but also about creating opportunities for cooperation with leading sociologists from the global academic community” - Yevhen Krotevych, Head of Analytics at Rating Group and ISSP Ukraine co-coordinator.

Preparations for the General Meeting were carried out in close cooperation with the entire ISSP Ukraine team, including ISSP Ukraine co-coordinator Olena Symonchuk, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Head of the Department of Social Structures at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Svitlana Oksamytna, Doctor of Sociological Sciences, Leading Research Fellow at the Department of Social Structures of the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Tetiana Skrypchenko, Deputy Director of Rating Group; and other colleagues.

“For Ukraine, participation in the ISSP General Meeting is not only a symbolic return to the research community of this international project, but also a practical opportunity to contribute to shaping the future agenda of comparative social research. It is important that, in the first year after renewing its membership, the Ukrainian team not only conducted two surveys based on international modules, but also joined professional discussions on methodology, data quality, and new challenges for sociology. For us, this is also a way to make the Ukrainian experience — including the experience of conducting surveys in wartime — visible to the international research community” - Olena Symonchuk, Head of the Department of Social Structures at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and ISSP Ukraine co-coordinator.

During the General Meeting, representatives of ISSP Ukraine took part in discussions on the results of international social surveys, shared their experience of data collection in wartime, and discussed methodological challenges with colleagues from other countries.

• The Ukrainian team contributed to the discussion and voting on future ISSP modules: Social Networks and Social Resources 2027, Religion 2028, and Social Inequality 2029.
• Special attention was paid to methodological issues, the improvement of data collection documentation, the analysis of quantitative studies, and the use of AI for coding occupations according to the international ISCO classification.
• In addition, the ISSP Ukraine team shared its experience of adapting sociological research to wartime conditions, in particular through the use of CATI RDD methods, and received valuable feedback from colleagues.

After returning to Kyiv, the Rating Group and Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine teams continued working on the finalisation of the dataset from the recent ISSP “Work Orientations” 2025 survey.