ZeS advisory board confirms high standards in research and promotion of young academics.

On May 22 and 23 the joint session of the scientific advisory board took place at the Centre for Social Policy Research. Within this framework, the research and teaching performance of ZeS members have been presented to the evaluation committee which was based on a former published annual report. Members of the board are national and international representatives of social policy research and politics. The evaluation report by the board is now available.

Besides Chairwoman Waltraud Schelkle (London School of Economics and Political Science), the conference was attended by Jochen Clasen (University of Edinburgh), Silja Häusermann (Zurich University), and Joachim Schuster (Member of European Parliament, Brussels). The participating permanent guests, mainly members of the University Board and the Bremen Senat, included Karl Bronke (Senatory Office of Welfare, Children, Youth and Women´s Affairs), Henning Ehler (German Statutory Pension Insurance Scheme), Ursula Niebling (Senator Office ofEducation and Science), and Kurosch Rezwan (Vice Rector for Research and Young Academics, University of Bremen).

Waltraud Schelkle (London School of Economics and Political Science)In an introductory statement, ZeS-spokesperson Herbert Obinger summarized the developments of the institute. The respective results were based on the previously published activity report for 2012 and 2013. Not only did this report present contributions in the field of interdisciplinary social policy research, both theory- and application-oriented, and the promotion of young researchers. It also revealed changes in personnel and progress in gender equality policies, as well as improvements in scholarly exchange and public relations. Based on these results, the participants subsequently discussed the future parameters for the institute.

from left to right: Joachim Schuster (Member of European Parliament, Brussels), Karl Bronke (Senatory Office of Welfare, Children, Youth and Women´s Affairs) The first part of the session was followed by two academic presentations, overtly displaying the great variety of subjects investigated in the institute. Simone Scherger, chair of the Emmy-Noether research group "Paid work beyond retirement age in Germany and the UK" - funded by the German Research Council (DFG) - presented the results of her research group. Subsequently, Rolf Müller, Heinz Rothgang and Rainer Unger (Department of Health Economics, Health Policy and Outcome Research) introduced their research projects regarding the subject "Long term care as a challenge for social policy and social policy research".

from left to right: Silja Häusermann (Zurich University), Jochen Clasen (University of Edinburgh)The evaluating report at hand emphasizes that the research conducted by the institute within the past two years is again of particularly high quality and valued on an international scale. This is confirmed by extraordinary statistics concerning publications and external funds. The advisory board further welcomed the ambitious and innovative research perspectives which represent that the ZeS - and its national and international recognized expertise - advances into new subject matters.

The next meeting of the ZeS advisory board will take place in 2016.

We cordially want to thank the members of the advisory board for their support and the constructive debates!

The committee is comprised of representatives of research and practical experts in social policy:

  • Prof. Dr. Jochen Clasen (University of Edinburgh)
  • Prof. Dr. Silja Häusermann (University of Zurich)
  • Prof. Dr. Eckhard Knappe (Universität Trier)
    Dr. Herbert Rische (president, Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund - German pension insurance)
  • Prof. Dr. Waltraud Schelkle (The London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London)
  • Dr. Joachim Schuster (former council of state, Bremen)
  • Prof. Dr. Jürgen Wasem (University of Duisburg-Essen)