in a world beset by challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change, the social sciences have never been more important for impartial, evidence-based research and analysis. The CESSDA® user stories place centre stage two CESSDA® services that are essential support for research in the social sciences: CESSDA DC®: data catalogue that contains the metadata of all data in the holdings of CESSDA’s service providers. It is a one-stop-shop for search and discovery, enabling effective access to European Social Science research data. CESSDA DMEG®: Data Management Expert Guide, designed by European experts, to help European social science researchers make their research data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. The stories explore global research challenges from COVID-19, migration to climate change, cancer and chronic diseases and recycling. Designed with practicality in mind, they share advice and insights from both national service providers and researchers to help the community and newcomers navigate their way through datasets and manage their data plans in the best possible way, showing how data is being reused and shared.