Bundling of competencies
Leibniz Education Research Network - LERN
Education is pivotal to society, science, and the economy. To individuals it opens doors to professional success, enables them to take part in society and take charge of their own lives. As a network of diverse competencies, we want to identify the potential of and for education, to unlock it and help people make better use of it.
There are many challenges in the field of education: educational opportunities are often unequally distributed, children and adults do not know how to deal with the information overload, and school and academic targets are not always clear. The Leibniz Education Research Network – LERN was formed to tackle these problems and to develop possible solutions.
The aim of the research network is to seek better leverage, at the individual, institutional, and societal levels, for reliable concepts and promising reforms.
The network’s research intentionally crosses disciplinary boundaries. LERN is the first education research network of this size and the only one in Germany. It brings together and supports the work of researchers in educational science, teaching methodology, linguistics, didactics, cultural and media studies, neuroscience, economics, political science, psychology, sociology, information science and computer science in the Leibniz Association and associated institutions.
GESIS is a national and international player in educational research.
Environmental Crisis - Crisis Environments (CrisEn)
The Leibniz-Research-Network “Environmental Crisis – Crisis Environments” is dedicated to the research of the contestation and governance of environmental changes as crisis. A key to detect a crisis and to initiate political crisis management is the perception of a threat as urgent, existential, and uncertain in its consequences. Taking this as a vantage point, the Leibniz Research Network examines under which conditions environmental change is perceived and contested as crisis, and which governance arrangements foster effective and sustainable crisis management. Both steps are important as the attribution of environmental changes as crises involves biophysical and societal phenomena whose interaction are not well understood so far. Furthermore, these two perspectives on environmental crises include furthering the resilience of contemporary societies with regard to environmental changes as well as an understanding of crisis scenarios as an opportunity for transformation towards sustainability.
GESIS deals with economic and financial crises from a historical and comparative perspective as well as with the political and social effects of crises.
Contact persons at GESIS
Earth & Societies
Humankind is increasingly influencing the Earth system that has evolved over millions of years. Visible signs of this "Anthropocene" are global warming, pollution of the oceans, and the decline in biodiversity.
In the coming years, therefore, societal decisions of civilisation-historical significance will have to be made. A fundamental question is: How can the Earth system be ecologically stabilised in such a way that well-being, prosperity, justice, peace, and security for all people are secured or even achieved?
Against this background, the Leibniz Research Network "Earth & Societies" has set itself the task of gaining knowledge about people in the Earth system that is relevant to society's actions. Above all, the ecological carrying capacities of the Earth system are to be determined and sustainable development paths derived from them.
On the one hand, the network develops innovative principles of integrated Earth system research. On the other hand, it is investigating the oceans and their use, biodiversity, environmental migration, urban-rural relationships, and the potential of the bioeconomy from the perspective of the Earth system. Climate change is considered throughout.
GESIS incorporates discussions of sustainability and environmental crises into research covering myriad topics.
Contact persons at GESIS
LeibnizData
The digital transformation is changing academia at a dramatic pace. In order to effectively utilise its inherent opportunities, this change must be managed as thoroughly as possible. Here the far-reaching use and processing of research data within the academic epistemological process is of fundamental importance to academia and innovation. Identifying digital research data as one of the most precious of resources, and safeguarding them, storing them for the long term and making them available to others, is therefore one of academia’s key tasks.
The aim of LeibnizData is to pool the Leibniz Association’s responses to the requirements of future-oriented handling of research data. The Leibniz research network bundles interdisciplinary services for data management and the necessary research data infrastructures and creates opportunities for professional exchange – both within LeibnizData and for the entire Leibniz Association and beyond.
LeibnizData makes an important contribution to ensuring that the Leibniz Association is firmly anchored in science policy in the field of research data – both in terms of infrastructures, e.g., through past and current activities in the German Council for Scientific Information Infrastructures, the German Data Forum (RatSWD), the High Level Expert Group on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the Horizon 2020 Advisory Group on European Research Infrastructures, the EOSC Association, and the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), as well as with regard to research data (e.g., through participation in the GOFAIR initiative and the involvement in activities relating to the Data Institute and the Research Data Act).
GESIS strives to provide high-quality research data as well as the means for researchers to work with and assess data quality for themselves.
Contact persons at GESIS
Mathematical Modelling and Simulation (MMS)
Modern mathematical modelling and simulation methods have become a fundamental resource for scientific and technological progress. Mathematical modelling and simulation is therefore a key methodological area of great relevance for the natural sciences and engineering and for economic, social, life, and environmental sciences. As a consequence, many Leibniz Institutes invest in these methods.
Methods from a wide range of mathematical fields are used (statistics, mathematical finance, optimisation/operations research, numerical methods for partial differential equations, mathematical image processing, etc.), to investigate problems on every conceivable temporal and spatial scale (from nanoparticles to immense cosmic structures, from femtoseconds to the age of the universe) with widely differing levels of complexity (from an individual company to the entire global economy, from local environmental events to global climate models).
The common factor in all these methods is that they are based on mathematical principles. This means they are cross-sectional in nature and can generally be used outside of the context in question, to help solve problems in completely different branches of science. There is great potential here for effective utilisation.
One of the key aims of this Leibniz Research Network is therefore to systematically exploit this potential for effective use and synergies. An important question is which is the fastest, most suitable and error-free of the current mathematical research methods to use in each case – to ensure that the available software and hardware resources are used effectively and sustainably.
Methods and tools for analyzing data are central components of the research-based infrastructure of GESIS.
Contact persons at GESIS
GESIS is an associated partner in the Leibniz research network "INFECTIONS in an Urbanizing World - Humans, Animals, Environments":
INFECTIONS in an Urbanizing World - Humans, Animals, Environments
Improved hygiene and better prevention and treatment have diminished the incidence of infectious diseases particularly in industrialised countries. However, increasing antibiotic resistance, emergence of new pathogens, together with changes in pathogen distribution due to altered climate and mobility are global challenges for humankind.
Infectious diseases can be spread and transferred to humans in many ways. A holistic approach is required to better understand transmission and to achieve optimal infection control strategies. Biomedical, ecological, socio-economic, and political aspects all need to be considered.
The Leibniz Research Alliance “INFECTIONS in an Urbanizing World" aims to establish an interdisciplinary research agenda and opens up new avenues of communication across disciplines. New strategies and methods for early warning and outbreak management systems will be developed to control spread of pathogens. This effort will also include public involvement through citizen science projects.
Talks:
- “Vom Winde verweht: Infektionserreger verbreiten sich über die Luft" (Public Talk, University of Mannheim, 03.12.2015, Podcast DRadio Wissen)
Disruptions and Transformations
The world is currently undergoing a period of rapid change due to the confluence of numerous crises. The Leibniz Lab "Disruptions and Transformations" shows how politics and society have reacted to fundamental challenges in the recent past. In this way, the Lab generates actionable knowledge for the future. It pools the expertise of 28 Leibniz institutions.
The Lab examines the manner in which different social disruptions of recent times have been addressed and relates them to each other. For example, it considers the transformations that followed the end of the Cold War in 1989/90, the challenges posed by globalization and the current challenges posed by climate change. The primary focus of the Lab is on the analysis of how these disruptions were overcome and what this implies for dealing with contemporary challenges. A key area of interest is the relationship between crises and resilience. For instance, the Lab offers novel insights into de- and re-industrialization, democracy and right-wing populism, or the social implications of new technologies.
The Lab demonstrates how disruptions are experienced by different actors and how solutions to problems are sought under time pressure. The focus is on the question of how societies can better cope with crises and develop resilience. The objective is to generate novel insights through the assessment and integration of pertinent bodies of knowledge, with the aim of disseminating this knowledge through social discourse forums. In order to achieve this objective, the laboratory engages in dialogue-oriented research communication with a variety of target groups, actively involving the public in the process. It also develops innovative formats for science communication. These include exhibitions, social media, policy briefs, and citizen science projects. The objective of the Leibniz Lab is to facilitate a social dialogue on the management and shaping of future transformations.
GESIS strives to deal with issues of both political and societal significance though several different research fields, with a particular focus being given to how transformational events and moments influence these areas.
Systemic Sustainability
The rapid loss of biodiversity and ongoing climate change are also the result of intensive agriculture. At the same time, they jeopardize agriculture and food security. The Leibniz Lab "Systemic Sustainability" brings together relevant knowledge in science and society on this fundamental challenge in order to promote the development and implementation of systemic solutions.
The current socio-ecological crisis reveals a clear conflict between biodiversity and climate change on the one hand and agriculture and food on the other. The intensification of global agriculture is accelerating the loss of biodiversity and climate change. Conversely, this increases the risks for agriculture and food security as well as the need for adaptation. The achievement of existential goals for sustainable development is thus jeopardized, and several planetary boundaries have already been exceeded. There is an urgent need for a more systemic and action-oriented approach in science and an in-depth dialogue with society in order to arrive at transformative solutions.
The Leibniz Lab addresses this need by integrating scientific findings in the field of "Biodiversity, Climate, Agriculture and Food" and identifying innovations. In pilot areas in different parts of the world, the Lab addresses regional requirements. It links these with global developments in order to understand the complex interrelationships from a holistic perspective and identify appropriate solutions. The Lab acts as a link between the relevant scientific communities and promotes dialogue between science and society. By pooling the expertise of 41 Leibniz research institutions and 11 research clusters it is creating a central knowledge and advice hub on issues relating to biodiversity, climate, agriculture and nutrition.
A portion of GESIS research includes discussions of sustainability and climate change.
CESSDA - The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives
The Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA ERIC) provides comprehensive, integrated and sustainable data services to social science stakeholders. It brings together data archives from across Europe to support research and collaboration at national and international levels. Having grown from a network of European service providers into a legal entity and infrastructure under the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI), CESSDA was granted ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) status in 2017. CESSDA is funded by the research ministries of each member state or a contracted institution. Its headquarters are located in Bergen, Norway.
Goals and Strategy of CESSDA
CESSDA's vision is to be a hub for data in the social sciences and to provide a reliable platform with tools and services for researchers to curate, publish and reuse research data. CESSDA has agreed to the principles of the European Open Science Cloud Declaration and is committed to actively supporting the implementation of FAIR data. Four CESSDA working groups, together with the main office, are supporting progress and developments:
- Deposit or retrieve data in an uncomplicated way - this is one of the goals of CESSDA. The "Tools" working group ensures that users always find a flawless technical infrastructure that is easy to use.
- CESSDA supports the continuous training of service providers and the user community. The "Training" working group relies on the train-the-trainer principle, and the areas covered include research data management, archiving, and CESSDA tools.
- CESSDA strengthens trust in social science research through quality assurance and reusability of data. The "Trust" Working Group supports CESSDA service providers on the path to becoming a Trusted Repository.
- CESSDA is growing - and developing a Pan-European collaboration that goes beyond the current membership. The "Widening and Outreach" working group is laying the groundwork for this by, for example, creating a common meeting platform for CESSDA partners, their ministerial and service representatives, and CESSDA headquarters through workshops. In addition, the working group provides information on CESSDA products, tools and support opportunities and promotes the visibility of CESSDA in third countries.
Der European Social Survey (ESS)
The European Social Survey (ESS) is an academically driven cross-national survey that has been conducted across Europe since its establishment in 2001. Every two years, face-to-face interviews are conducted with newly selected, cross-sectional samples. The survey measures the attitudes, beliefs and behavior patterns of diverse populations in more than thirty nations.
In 2005 the ESS was the winner of the Descartes Prize for Research & Science Communication.The ESS was awarded ERIC status by the European Commission in 2013 and comprises now 21 member countries and one observer country. The Director of the ESS ERIC is Rory Fitzgerald and the ESS ERIC headquarters are at City, University of London.
Aims
The main aims of the ESS are:
- to chart stability and change in social structure, conditions and attitudes in Europe and to interpret how Europe’s social, political and moral fabric is changing;
- to achieve and spread higher standards of rigour in cross-national research in the social sciences, including for example, questionnaire design and pre-testing, sampling, data collection, reduction of bias and the reliability of questions;
- to introduce soundly-based indicators of national progress, based on citizens’ perceptions and judgements of key aspects of their societies;
- to undertake and facilitate the training of European social researchers in comparative quantitative measurement and analysis;
- to improve the visibility and outreach of data on social change among academics, policy makers and the wider public.
Services
The ESS data is available free of charge for non-commercial use and can be downloaded from the ESS website after a short registration.
The Role of GESIS
GESIS as member of the Core Scientific Team within ESS fulfils major tasks in questionnaire translation and in fieldwork planning and monitoring. In order to achieve 'optimal comparability' in the operationalisation of the ESS, the Core Scientific Team produces a detailed project specification, which is revised in light of each successive round. National teams ensure that fieldwork is conducted - and comprehensively documented – according to the same standards cross-nationally. This 'principle of equality or equivalence' applies to sample selection, translation of the questionnaire, and to all methods and processes associated with data collection and processing.
The national teams of the countries participating to ESS are supported and evaluated in order to ensure the highest possible precision and comparability of the collected data.
The ESS team at GESIS organizes the meetings of the National Coordinators’ Forum twice a year. Dr. Angelika Scheuer serves as Deputy Director Scientific and supports the Scientific Advisory Board of the ESS ERIC.
Members
- City, University of London (UK)
- GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Germany)
- KU Leuven (University of Leuven) (Belgium)
- NSD - Norwegian Centre for Research Data (Norway)
- SCP - The Netherlands Institute for Social Research (Netherlands)
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Spain)
- University of Essex (UK)
- University of Ljubljana (Slovenia)