"I would like to congratulate the speakers and all researchers involved in the collaborative projects in Bonn and at the other locations! It is great that we were able to jointly attract two new CRC and that two will continue to be funded," says Rector Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Hoch. "The two extended CRC have developed excellently and successfully established themselves in cutting-edge research on economics in the context of societal challenges and on sustainable global development from a transdisciplinary perspective."
Economic perspectives on social challenges
The Collaborative Research Center Transregio 224 "Economic Perspectives on Societal Challenges", established in 2018, is a cooperation between the University of Bonn and the University of Mannheim. In different project fields, the researchers address three key societal challenges: how to promote equality of opportunity, how to regulate markets in light of the internationalization and digitalization of economic activity, and how to safeguard the stability of the financial system. The researchers consider these challenges to be inherently interconnected. The goal of the CRC is to analyze them and make policy proposals for addressing them.
In the second funding period, the CRC’s research program will be complemented by two new projects on "Behavioral Determinants of Labor Market Inequalities" and "Heterogeneity, Financial Frictions and Macroeconomic Stabilization". The CRC thus integrates a new labor market perspective on the one hand and broadens the macroeconomic focus of its research program on the other. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the CRC's project fields will remain part of the research activities in the second funding period.
"In its first four years, the Collaborative Research Center has not only delivered scientific contributions at the highest international level, but has also established innovative and powerful structures in the promotion of young researchers and in science communication," says economist Prof. Sven Rady of the University of Bonn. "As the spokesperson for the first funding period, I am very proud of what has been achieved and look forward to the further development of our research network under the leadership of my colleague Volker Nocke."
"For many years, the Universities of Bonn and Mannheim have already created an environment for cutting-edge economic research that is unique in Germany. The DFG's decision to continue funding the Collaborative Research Center to an even greater extent than before is the well-deserved result of these efforts, but above all it is a huge success for the researchers involved," emphasizes Prof. Volker Nocke from the University of Mannheim, who will chair the Collaborative Research Center as its speaker for the next four years.
In terms of content, the CRC Transregio 224 is very closely linked to the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Individuals and Societies" at the University of Bonn through its research on important societal challenges. At the same time, its research methods also contribute to the mathematically oriented Transdisciplinary Research Area "Modelling".
Funding amount: 11 million euros
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Volker Nocke, University of Mannheim
Co-speaker: Prof. Dr. Sven Rady, University of Bonn (speaker of the first funding period)
Shaping the future in rural Africa
In the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 228 “Future Rural Africa”, researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Cologne, the Bonn International Centre for Conflict Studies (BICC) and the German Development Institute (DIE) are investigating how the future is being shaped in rural Africa. The focus is on land use change and socio-ecological transformation processes in rural areas of Eastern and Southern Africa. The Collaborative Research Centre combines expertise from the natural sciences, the humanities and the social sciences.
"In the first funding phase, we focused on the rather tense interwoven processes of agricultural intensification and extensification or expansion of conservation areas. In the second funding phase, the focus will be expanded to include the process of 'infrastructuring'," says Prof. Detlef Müller-Mahn of the Institute of Geography, Speaker for the first funding period.
"The term 'infrastructuring' refers to the planning and construction of large-scale infrastructures, which are seen as a further driver of land-use change and socio-ecological transformation processes in rural Africa," explains Prof. Michael Bollig from the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne, who will be the Speaker in the upcoming funding period.
The Collaborative Research Centre promotes cooperation with researchers and scientific institutions in Africa and strives to consolidate the Cologne/Bonn location as a leading center of innovative research in the emerging field of futures studies and socio-ecological research in Africa.
The CRC is thematically embedded in the Transdisciplinary Research Area "Sustainable Futures" of the University of Bonn.
Funding amount: 9.5 million euros
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Michael Bollig from the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Cologne
Co-speaker: Prof. Dr. Britta Klagge, Institute of Geography at the University of Bonn
