As of January 1, 2014, the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), which has been previously carried out as a research project by the University of Bamberg, will be continued as part of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (Leibniz-Institut für Bildungsverläufe e.V., LIfBi). Both at once, LIfBi will become an independent research institution affiliated with the University of Bamberg and a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Association (Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz e.V., WGL). Thus, in no more than five years' time the project has evolved into an institution boosting in a sustained manner the research landscape of Upper Franconia and also far beyond.