Key Research Area "Interdisciplinary Studies of Science"

Whether it is climate change, global food security, energy supply, health development, species extinction, or water scarcity—considerable expectations are placed on future scientific knowledge worldwide to solve most of the major challenges of the 21st century. However, the successful development, communication, and application of scientific knowledge is itself a major challenge. The tensions that scientists increasingly find themselves facing are in many cases exacerbated by the forces of increasing economization, politicization, and mediatization of science. The multifaceted tasks of universities also deserve special attention in the context of the challenges facing the scientific system.
The key research are Interdisciplinary Studies of Science brings together research in the humanities and social sciences on the social, epistemological, normative, and cultural conditions of science.
The Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS) was newly established at Leibniz University Hannover in April 2016 to create a central location for science and higher education research. There, as well as at the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS), the Institute of Philosophy with its focus on the philosophy of science, the DFG Advanced Studies Centre "SOCRATES - Social Credibility and Trustworthiness of Expert Knowledge and Science-Based Information"  and the DFG Research Training Group “Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research,” and in other areas of work at the three participating faculties, researchers focus their work on science itself as a social, cultural, and cognitive phenomenon. Leibniz University Hannover has developed into a center for this research that will become even more visible with the opening of the research building Forum Wissenschaftsreflexion.