Co-ordinating office for the BMBF research priority domain “Cause-related individual diagnostics and intervention in defined school-related developmental disorders“ (ESF)

In spring 2011, this co-ordinating office was established at the DIPF and LMU University, Munich, in the context of the initiative by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to promote empirical educational research. It is currently responsible for 18 research and co-operation projects funded by the BMBF within its programmes “School-Related Developmental Disorders (ESF)”  and “Neurosciences / Learning and Instruction (NIL)” 

Tasks and objectives of co-ordinating office

The co-ordinating office provides for specialised organisational and technical prerequisites necessary for close collaboration and specialised support of projects funded within the BMBF research priorities ESF and NIL.

In order to ensure targeted support of the funded projects, the co-ordinating office pursues the following central objectives on behalf of the researchers involved:

• Internal networking of funded projects on the one hand, as well as networking the projects with external, thematically related research and developmental projects and subsequent evaluations.
  Annual meetings involving all of the funded projects aim to promote the exchange among researchers and scientists involved in the respective projects. Networking activities also include annual international symposia in the field of school-related developmental disorders and meetings of young scientists.
• Preparation and transfer of findings from individual projects as well as general findings, making them available to the research community and the public in general.

The co-ordinating office is jointly chaired by Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn, German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) Frankfurt am Main, the institute’s deputy director, director of the Center for Education and Human development, and Prof. Dr. Gerd Schulte-Körne, Munich University Hospital (KUM), director of the psychiatric, psychosomatic and psychotherapeutic centre for children and young people. Dr. Kathleen Thomas is the contact person responsible at the DIPF.