How many research projects requiring survey data are underway at your university or research institution at this moment? Between those that are being planned today and those already underway, it’s probably a big number.
Now consider all the effort each research team is investing in the process of reviewing, vetting, selecting, and negotiating with different survey partners. Spread across many different projects, that adds up to a lot of time, effort, and budget – at a time when resources are constrained.
Looking for a new model
The University of Iowa’s Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI) is an interdisciplinary social science research center, responsible for providing faculty, students, and Iowa communities with resources and support for conducting a range of research projects.
CSSI began working with Verasight on an as-needed basis in 2023. “Our researchers knew that traditional polling methods were shifting to online panels, and we’d started investigating building our own panels of respondents,” says says Cassidy Branch, manager of research services at CSSI. “But the more we learned, the clearer it became that it wouldn’t be feasible for our center in the immediate future.”
So when Verasight suggested a subscription model for surveys, CSSI leaders were intrigued. “We support research teams that run the gamut from grad students who are starting out and don’t have access to large amounts of funding, to advanced projects that have ambitious research goals,” says Branch. “We liked the idea of a subscription service because it could allow us to serve them both more easily. For researchers who only needed responses to a couple of questions to jump-start their work, we could make it easy. For the larger projects, we could provide them with an option to collect robust data.”
Starting in 2025, CSSI pioneered a subscription-based approach to its work with Verasight, establishing a single budget to cover all engagements with the firm.
One subscription, many projects, big benefits
The subscription budget is translated into credits for researchers. Once a research team has identified the scope of their project, CSSI and Verasight quickly determine the amount of credits required to conduct the research, the team “cashes in” their credits, provides their questions, and the survey gets underway. “All the researcher has to do is provide us with the research questions,” says Branch. “The data comes back to them clean and ready for analysis.”
Verasight offers compelling benefits:
- Consistent survey quality: Through the subscription, Iowa researchers have ready access to high-quality, nationally representative surveys from a recognized leader. Survey credits are also eligible to be used for niche, custom samples to support all forms of survey work.
- Fewer administrative hurdles: Using this model, researchers don’t have to worry about many of the standard approvals required for conducting surveys. With a subscription, the purchasing requirements, software approvals, and IRB clearance are already handled.
- Bulk discount rate: Compared to the cost of contracting with Verasight individually for each project, the total yearly cost of the contract is significantly lower, with discounts on every single survey.
- Speed and responsiveness: A Verasight subscription delivers dedicated project team familiar with CSSI.
- Dedicated support: The subscription model is staffed to make sure projects get up and running fast. Verasight makes sure it always has staff on hand to cater directly to CSSI’s needs, avoiding blackout dates.
“The subscription model works well for everyone involved,” says Branch. “Our researchers are happy because we’ve removed some important barriers for them to gain access to the research capabilities they need, regardless of the size or scope of their project. And for us at CSSI, the whole thing is just easier to manage.”
The subscription service is built for flexibility. When Iowa researchers need custom survey samples tailored to specific research questions, Verasight can support those bespoke needs across study design, recruitment, and fielding. Verasight’s model allows researchers to draw from targeted populations, adjust sample parameters as projects evolve, and efficiently deploy surveys without the overhead of renegotiating contracts for each study. This ensures research teams can move quickly while maintaining methodological rigor and high data quality.
Is a Verasight subscription right for you?
Building on the success of survey subscriptions at the University of Iowa, Verasight now offers this service to qualifying universities and research institutions. The best place to start is with a conversation, where we can determine together whether the subscription model would work for your organization.
To get started, just send a message to Samantha Fleischner, Associate Director of Client Solutions at Verasight, at sami@verasight.io.
