How far in time can be searched using an API program?

[egodial]

For academic and public policy design purposes my interest is to compile geolocation data for Twitts with certain content. My interest is to develop a program which compiles several years of geolocation data to certain twitts in a given country. I understand that Twitter policies only allow API access to the last x-months.

Nonetheless, if the research has no profit purposes and might provide an important service, does Twitter provide special permission to compile data since several years?

[andypiper]

You can get 7 days of data from the Search API, or you can listen on the Streaming API for an indefinite period, for up to 1% of the firehose.

For more complete datasets you can use Gnip, which is a commercial offering based on the full historical Twitter archive.

We have previously offered a limited Data Grants program for academia, and are looking at future possibilities in this space, but right now these are the only two options available.