The long-standing cooperation between the Key Research Initiative (KRI) "Demography and Social Inequality" based at the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences and the Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) is to be further intensified in research and teaching in the coming years. At the beginning of the year, the Rector of the University of Cologne, Prof. Dr Axel Freimuth, and the Director of the BiB, Prof. Dr Katharina Spieß, signed a corresponding cooperation agreement.
In addition to courses offered by BiB staff in study programmes of the WiSo faculty, the development of a family demographic data infrastructure (FReDA), in which GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is also involved, is currently a focus of the cooperation. In this project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, more than 30,000 people aged 18 to 49 are surveyed twice a year since 2021 about their family life situation and changes in it, so that a detailed picture of family life in Germany will emerge.
Prof. Dr Karsten Hank (ISS-WiSo University of Cologne), spokesperson of the WiSo-KRI "Demography and Social Inequality" and BiB Fellow, is pleased about the now formally agreed cooperation: "The BiB has broad professional expertise in all core areas of demographic research - fertility, mortality and migration - and is also excellently connected in the area of policy consulting. With this strong partner at our side, we can further strengthen our profile as an outstanding university location for population research and communicate our findings even better than before into practice, so that 'Today's ideas.' can actually become 'Tomorrow's impact.'"
The Federal Institute for Population Research, based in Wiesbaden, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. It is in the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs and is run in administrative association with the Federal Statistical Office. The BiB investigates the causes and consequences of demographic change with the aim of providing policy advice and information to the public.
