GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

The Foundation for Excellence

GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences is the largest infrastructure institution for the Social Sciences in Germany. More than 250 employees in three locations (Mannheim, Cologne, 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:

The president Prof. Dr. York Sure-Vetter 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. 

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.