Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB)

The Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) investigates the causes and consequences of demographic change.In an advisory capacity, the BiB is in contact with the federal government and federal ministries and advises them on the basis of scientific research. As part of the advisory cooperation, the BiB supports the Federal Government in international cooperation on population issues within the framework of the United Nations. Informing the public about demographic change and the Institute’s research findings is another important task. The Institute was founded in 1973 and is since then is based in Wiesbaden, Hesse.

As part of the advisory cooperation, the BiB supports the Federal Government in international cooperation on population issues within the framework of the United Nations.Informing the public about demographic change and the Institute’s research findings is another central task.

The Institute is a federal departmental research institution and is part of the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Home Affairs.

Important works and tasks:

Research: Research is a central task at the BiB. It is the basis for sound advice and information. One of its core tasks is the continuous monitoring of demographic trends. Other areas of focus include the three research areas of family and fertility, migration and mobility, and demographic change and ageing. In addition, the Education and Human Capital research group, which was newly formed in 2021, investigates the importance of education for population development in Germany. One example of this is the study “Why children from potentially disadvantaged families are less likely to attend daycare – even if they need it” which was conducted on behalf of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Policy advice: On the basis of the institute’s own research findings, the institute advises the federal government and federal ministries. Information, interpretation of demographic trends and the preparation of scientific expertise represent core competencies in policy advice. At the level of international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations, the BiB advises and supports the federal government on population issues.

Information: The BiB publishes the results of its research in numerous publications. In more than 430 charts, maps and tables, the BiB regularly publishes information on demographic facts for Germany, Europe and the world.

ifo Education Survey

The ifo Education Survey was developed by the ifo Center for the Economics of Education as part of the project “The political economy of education policy: Insights from an opinion survey” funded by the Leibniz Association. The ifo Education Survey is based on an annual public opinion survey of over 4,000 individuals who constitute a representative sample of Germany’s adult population.

The results of the ifo Education Survey in can be found on the website of ifo Institute.

WZB Berlin Social Science Center

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center conducts basic research with a focus on problems of modern societies in a globalized world. Around 160 German and international researchers work at the WZB, including sociologists, political scientists, economists, legal scholars, and historians. They study developments, problems, and opportunities for innovation in modern societies. Their research is theory-based, problem-oriented, often long-term and mostly based on international comparisons. The research areas are: education, work and life chances, markets and choice, society and economic dynamics, international politics and law, dynamics of political systems, migration and diversity.

One research focus at the WZB is sociological education research on vocational training and continuing education. Research devoted to these topics is primarily performed at the research unit “Skill Formation and Labor Markets” (Director: Prof. Dr. Heike Solga) and the WZB-based project group “National Educational Panel Study: Vocational Training and Lifelong Learning” (Head: Prof. Dr. Reinhard Pollak). The WZB makes theoretical and empirical contributions to improving the German education systems, fighting educational deprivation, and smoothing the transition from school to work. All of this involves international comparisons. An important focus of education research at the WZB is the relation between education, labor market, and social policy.

Important Research Projects:

The project group “National Educational Panel Study” at the Social Science Research Center (WZB) is involved in Stage 6 (Vocational Training and Transition to the Labor Market) and Stage 8 (Adult Education and Lifelong Learning) of the German National Educational Panel Study.
In cooperation with various Leibniz institutes, the “College for interdisciplinary Education Research” (CIDER) offers the opportunity of interdisciplinary career advancement to 30 junior scientists in educational science, psychology, economics, and sociology during their early post-doctoral stage.
The WZB is a partner and patron of the „Berlin Interdisciplinary Education Research Network“ (BIEN) and of the Berlin Network of Labor Market Research (BeNA).
The institute publishes the “WZBrief Bildung”. The „WZBrief Bildung“ provides concise up-to-date information about a given topic from their educational research. It is published several times a year in electronic form. It is geared towards experts and specialists working in politics, schools, organizations and the media. The authors of the „WZBrief Bildung“ are scientists conducting research on issues surrounding education and training.
In cooperation with the German Federal Agency for Civic Education, the WZB publishes the „Zukunft Bildung“ dossier (“The future of education”). Using texts, videos, and graphics, the dossier makes current educational policy debates and research results from various disciplines accessible to a broad, non-academic audience.

University of Luxembourg

At the associated partner “University of Luxembourg” is the research group „Educational Processes in Contemporary Societies“ consisting of members from two Institutes devoted to educational research. It connects social scientific perspectives on education and learning processes (educational theory, philosophy, history, and sociology). The main focus is on educational policies, systems, and processes within particular cultural, political, and socio-economic contexts. Thus, particular importance is placed on historical, cross-national, and international perspectives. Objects of study, whether in quantitative or qualitative or historical and institutional analyses, are education policies, system development, learning processes and teaching, and learning within and outside educational organizations.

Activities:

The activities of the research group include editing journals and book series, contributing to national education reports (Germany, Luxembourg), organizing international conferences, evaluation and consulting in a range of countries and advisory board membership.

Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)

The associated partner “Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO)” analyses economic, social, and political processes of change in the agricultural and food sector and in rural areas. The geographic focus covers the enlarging EU, transition regions of Central, Eastern, and South Eastern Europe, as well as Central and Eastern Asia.

Scope of work

Research: IAMO is an international institute that pursues basic and applied research in the field of agricultural economics. It analyses the political, external environment of agriculture and its scope of design, the agricultural and food sector markets, and the structural development of enterprises and living conditions in rural areas. As education, health, nutrition, and social security of the rural population are core elements of rural living conditions these topics are part of IAMO’s research profile. Results support design and evaluation of integrated rural development strategies which comprise education health, nutrition, and social policies. Moreover, it embraces the interdependencies of market processes, managerial decisions and policies on the socioeconomic situation and environment and rural areas.
Scientific exchange: The institute is distributing its research outcomes to the international academic community as well as to decision-makers in politics and business, international organisations and the broad public. It acts as a forum of exchange, thereby promoting the linking up of research at an international level, and dialogue between leaders from the academic world, politics and business. In view of the immense and new challenges ahead, science-based policy advice is becoming an increasingly important factor in the institute’s work.
Promotion of young researchers: Among the institute’s core tasks is also the qualification of academic scholars from Germany and abroad. A particular focus lies on the promotion of scientists from study regions. IAMO supports PhD and postdoctoral studies and hands out thesis topics for Master’s or Bachelor’s degrees. IAMO Graduate School provides PhD students with systematic support and training. Visiting stays at IAMO and research visits of IAMO doctoral candidates and postdocs at overseas research centres enhance profiling younger scientists.

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

As the largest German infrastructure institute for the social sciences, GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences, with its expertise and services, stands ready to support researchers on the basis of the newest scientific methods, high quality data and research information.

Research projects generally go through a process with several phases – the research data cycle. Therefore, the services offered by GESIS-Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences are structured along a four-phase research data cycle, as follows:

Plan studies & collect data
Finding & retrieving data
Prepare & analyze data
Archive & share

GESIS offers consulting and practice-oriented guidance for each phase.
In the first phase, for example, GESIS experts advise on the collection of survey data and digital behavioral data. Researchers are supported in the development of an adequate project design and the quality assurance of the implementation.
The second phase, Find & Retrieve Data, enables researchers to find the appropriate data for secondary analysis. For this purpose, more than 6500 national and international studies are available in the GESIS data archive.
The preparation of data is also an essential step on the way to their analysis. Therefore, in the third phase Prepare & Analyze Data, GESIS supports the modification, linking, and analysis of data.
In the fourth phase, Archive & Share, GESIS promotes scientific transparency in line with the FAIR principles: F(indable) A(ccessible) I(nteroperable) and R(e-usable).
At GESIS, researchers can find repositories and services to archive, register, and share their data and publications over the long term.

The services offered for the research process are based on our own continuous and interdisciplinary research in the four areas of Survey Methodology, Research Data Management, Current Societal Issues, and Applied Informatics, as well as within their intersections.

Data Archive for the Social Sciences (DAS)
The department Data Archive for the Social Sciences (DAS) is Germany’s central infrastructure for the registration, documentation and digital archiving of quantitative research data which can be used to analyze societal developments from a national, internationally comparative or historical perspective.

Research Data Center
The Research Data Centers (RDC) at GESIS offer a special service for a number of survey programs for which GESIS partially participate in the data collection or permanently take over the tasks of data processing, archiving and delivery

One of GESIS’ most important research areas is education research. GESIS is involved in significant German, European, and international projects: Within PIAAC, GESIS is part of the PIAAC Consortium, which is the board responsible for planning and controlling. GESIS is also responsible for the German project management. An enhancement is PIAAC-L, a project that is implemented together with LIfBi and SOEP. It is the first internationally comparable long-term study worldwide for competencies in adulthood. Further selected GESIS projects within the area of educational research are:

CIDER – College for Interdisciplinary Education Research for the support of talented junior researchers in interdisciplinary context
Feasibility study for the Baden-Württemberg-Panel to generate progress data on the transfer from education at school and vocational training
CAMCES – Computer-Assisted Measurement and Coding of Educational Qualifications in surveys to make the internationally greatly varying survey tools for education comparable in survey data.

Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI)

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Media | Georg Eckert Institute (GEI) is a centre for research in educational media and is one of a kind in Germany. Its mission consists in carrying out practice-oriented, multidisciplinary research on textbooks and other school-based educational media, informed by the disciplines of history and cultural studies. The GEI also advises national and international stakeholders in educational policy and practice. The Institute coordinates and mediates debates and cooperations on international textbook-related matters. As a non-university establishment that both conducts research and makes research possible, the GEI sees itself as a research-oriented infrastructural institution. Its main attraction is the Research Library, with an internationally unique collection of textbooks from the areas of history, social studies/civics, geography and ethics/religion. With the information and communication portal Edumeres, the GEI provides virtual access to current information, publications and data from research on textbooks and educational media, organized into several modules.

Key research activities and services at the GEI:

With the advancement of digitalisation, education is undergoing a fundamental change. In response, the GEI has broadened its focus to include digital educational media. Research on knowledge and interpretation, on the societal dimension of media-based transformation, and on the use and adoption of new technology goes hand in hand with an expansion of the Research Library’s collection and the continuing digitisation of its holdings.
The GEI provides a diverse range of academic transfer and other services. It acts, for instance, as a coordinator for bilateral textbook commissions and projects and supplies consultation services on textbook-related matters to national and international education policymakers, practitioners and organisations. Additionally, it has served as a mediator in conflict-laden situations surrounding textbooks and provides support for the development of new textbooks and educational media.
The GEI’s research library, which holds a unique collection of history, geography, social studies and ethics/religious education textbooks from around the world, has been designated as a Special Subject Collection library by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and is the textbook centre of the Council of Europe.
The GEI runs the information and communication portal Edumeres.net, which acts as a virtual point of access to educational media research conducted from the perspective of historical and cultural studies.
The Institute has its own visiting professorship through the Georg Arnhold Program on Education for Sustainable Peace.

German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW)

DZHW provides applied empirical research in the field of higher education and science studies. As research institution of the Federal State and the Länder (Bund-Länder-Einrichtung) it works nationally and internationally as a partner of the scientific community and both higher education and science policies. Committed to politically independent and excellent research DZHW develops and elaborates innovative, socially and politically relevant issues regarding tertiary education and science. The research and service tasks of DZHW are organized in four research units:

Educational Careers and Graduate Employment
Longitudinal studies regarding educational and occupational trajectories, returns to education, in particular regarding decision to study, progress of studying, occupational and scientific careers.

Research System and Science Dynamics
Examinations of the development of the system of research and science in the international context and of the interactions of different structures of governance, funding, and promotion.

Governance in Higher Education and Science
Studies with respect to indicator systems of universities and scientific organizations, regarding the structures of governance of scientific continuing education at universities and examinations of structures and processes of governance with an organization-sociological perspective.

Research Infrastructure and Methods
Provision of research infrastructure, data sets, databases, buildup of the research data centre. The Research Data Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (RDC-DZHW) archives quantitative and qualitative data from the field of higher education research and science studies and makes them available to researchers and teaching staff for secondary use.

Important work and services:

Longitudinal studies on persons with university entrance qualifications, students (e.g., social surveys of students since 1951, eurostudent), graduates, PhD students and PHD graduates;
NEPS 1: From Higher Education to the Labor Market (NEPS Starting Cohort 5 „First-Year Students“)
The DZHW is in the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) responsible for the Starting Cohort 5 (First-Year Students) which following up a cohort of first-year students throughout their studies and into their careers. Particular attention will be paid to investigating educational decisions, the development of competencies, the returns to higher education, and the transition to the labor market;
NEPS 2: Panel of Teacher Education Students
The DZHW examines the study progress and success and the career start of teacher education students (additional sample of NEPS Starting Cohort 5) as well as potential differences in interests, occupational orientation and previous educational biographies compared to other students;
NEPS 3: Returns to Education Across the Life Course;
The DZHW examines as member of pillar 5 “Returns to Education Across the Life Course” of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) the non-monetary returns to education like health, deviance and social and political participation;
Educational monitoring and reporting (contributions to „National Report on Education” or ”National Report on Junior Scholars”;
Competence Centre for Bibliometrics for the evaluation of research performance;
RCD-DZHW with data sets of higher education research and science studies;
Services for Federal State and State (Länder) administrations, universities, commissions and boards, science organisations and researchers. More information can be found here (in German).