Research Focuses
- Financed through special funds of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
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Currently three university-wide, thematic research focuses at the University of Koblenz-Landau receive special funding from the State of Rhineland-Palatinate through the "Research Initiative" of the program "Wissen schafft Zukunft" (knowledge creates future): "Land-water-interactions influenced by new anthropogenic stressors" (AufLand), "Communication, Media, Politics" (KoMePol), and "Cultural Orientation and Normative Obligation" (Kultur-Norm).In addition, the university uses special funds from the "Research Initiative" to promote the two long established research focuses informatics and eductional sciences. One result of earlier support was the establishment of the Graduate School "Teaching & Learning Processes" (UpGrade). The university can use funds from the strategic fonds of the Research Initiative to make more attractive offers to potential new professors in both established research focuses.
The aim of the research focuses is to improve such research capabilities that are suited to strenghten and enhance the university's research profile in the areas LEARNING, SOCIETY, and ENVIRONMENT. Research focuses are established by the Senate of the university and need to be based on a positive external academic review.
- AufLand
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The research focus "Land-water-interactions influenced by new anthropogenic stressors" follows an interdisiplinary approach - including academic fields that cover from the molecular level to whole ecosystems - to investigate the influences of new anthropogenic stressors in fresh water and nearby land areas.
- KoMePol
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The research focus "Communication, Media and Politics" combines political and communication research with research on individual perception and the influence of new interactive media. It includes researchers from political science, communication research, psychology and computer sciences.
- Kultur-Norm
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The research focus "Cultural Orientation and Normative Obligation" investigates from an interdisciplinary perspective the developments of cultural frameworks for language, body and social behavior. It includes researchers from educational science, philosophy, theology, cultural studies, literature and linguistics.
- E-Democracy
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Democracy is constituted by democratic processes that follow rules. For a working democracy it is crucial that citizens have trust in the effectiveness and efficiency of these processes. Here, effectiveness means that democracy reaches its goal by representing the peoples' will, while efficiency means that this is achieved promptly and with little cost. Both effectiveness and efficiency can be increased by digitising democratic processes.