Following the decision by the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz, GWK), the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) will be admitted to the joint research promotion of the German Government and the Federal States. Therefore, the way has now been cleared for NEPS to become a member of the Leibniz Association (Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, WGL). Only 5 years after its foundation as a temporary research project, NEPS will develop into an infrastructure facility with permanent funding within the scope of promotion by the German Federal Government and the Länder.
Berlin. The Joint Science Conference of Federal Government and the Länder (GWK)—whose members consist of the Federal Ministries of Finance and Education and Research as well as the responsible ministries of particular Federal-State Governments—has decided in today’s meeting to guarantee the funding for the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) in Bamberg. With today’s decision by the GWK, Federal Government and the Federal States are expanding the project to become an institute entitled Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe e.V., LIfBi). Because of its transregional importance and the nationwide scientific-political interest, it will be financed by the joint research funding of Germany and its Federal States with effect from the beginning of 2014.
The inclusion of NEPS—which has been described as a “worldwide unique research infrastructure facility” by the German Council of Science and Humanities in a statement from April 26 of this year—as part of the joint research promotion of Germany and its Federal States will strengthen the entire research landscape of Upper Franconia in a sustainable manner.
For more information (German only): http://www.gwk-bonn.de/fileadmin/Pressemitteilungen/pm2013-11.pdf