GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

The Foundation for Excellence

GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences is the largest infrastructure institution in Germany. More than 250 employees in four locations (Mannheim, Cologne, Bonn, Berlin) render substantial, nationally and internationally relevant research-based infrastructure services.

History

Established in 1986 as German Social Science Infrastructure Services and publicly prefunded , GESIS consisted of the three independent institutes Social Science Information Centre (IZ) in Bonn, Central Archive for Empirical Social Research in Cologne (ZA), and Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA) in Mannheim.

Since 2007 GESIS has merged into one institute. In November 2008 GESIS has assumed the name addition "Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences" to emphasize its membership to the Leibniz Association.

Executive board and Statutory Bodies

GESIS-Leibniz-Institut for the Social Sciences is a registered organization with following statutory bodies:

• General Meeting of members
• Board of Trustees
• President
• Scientific Advisory Board
• User Advisory Board

The president Prof. Dr. York Sure is the executive of the institute.

Organization

GESIS is divided in five scientific departments covering with their research based services the whole range of empirical social research. 

• Survey design & methodology
• Social Monitoring and Social Change
• Data Archive for the Social Sciences
• Specialized information for the Social Sciences
• Information processes in the Social Sciences

The research data centres are placed across the departments. Additional to the access to special data, they provide also documentations and context information and give advice based on own research.

Our infrastructure departments Administration, IT, Communication, Quality Management and Library maintain the scientific work at GESIS with internal and external services.