Research

The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research e. V. (PIK) works on issues of climate change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It was founded in 1992 and today employs around 140 staff. At PIK, researchers from the natural sciences and the humanities work together to investigate global environmental changes and their ecological, economic and social consequences.

Shaping diversity with intercultural competence - this is the principle of the association Ethnologie in Schule und Erwachsenenbildung (ESE) e.V. (Ethnology in Schools and Adult Education), which was founded in 1992 by ethnologists and educators.

The basis for ESE's work is the scientific examination of approaches to teaching intercultural competence, intercultural education and intercultural upbringing, as well as the processing of ethnological material in order to be able to convey scientifically sound information about other cultures and about mechanisms of intercultural understanding in a way that is understandable to lay people.

With our offer in adult education, we address all people who have contact with people from different cultures in their everyday life and work and who would like more background information and competence to act.

In children's and youth education, we offer intercultural and global learning for different subject areas. Our units are suitable for project days, holiday programmes or short teaching units.

Since 1999, the ZEU has been active as an interdisciplinary institution of research of the Justus-Liebig-University, transcending faculties in the process of its work. At present, the disciplines of Agricultural und Food, Geography, Environmental Safety, as well as the disciplines of Law, Political Science and Economics are involved in the ZEU. Research is mainly financed through third-party funds.

The fact that the ZEU's subjects and contents concentrate on the topics of environment and development owes to the idea that issues of development and environment are usually interdependent, and should therefore be examined through faculty transcending research.

This basic idea is supported by the research potential of Giessen University. Developmental as well as environmental research is conducted in a variety of institutes which perform their work in many different countries and, partly, in international comparative studies regarding one or even both topics.

A major task of the ZEU is to use this potential effectively and to fill a gap in the market of international research with the comparative advantages arising through the Center's activities.

The importance of interdisciplinarity for the ZEU is mirrored in its organisational structure: it is made up of the four sections

1. Use of Natural Resources and Environmental Preservation
2. Food Security
3. Development and Poverty Fighting
4. Institutional Foundation of Regional Development Processes

A regional specialisation is not intended.