"A good research idea cannot be taken for granted." – Four doctoral scholarships for the ISD.

Members of the Institute for Sociology and Demography (ISD) have received four new doctoral scholarships from the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The Minister of Economics, Birgit Hesse, handed over the funding notification in Schwerin on 21 February 2017. Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Schareck, Rector of the University of Rostock, emphasized that successful research projects start with a really good research idea, although it cannot be taken for granted to find one.

The research projects of the ISD staff members are:

• Prof. Dr. Peter Berger / Dr. habil. Andreas Klärner (2 scholarships)
  • Residence in the accelerated modern era? Ambivalences between centres and peripheries.
• Prof. Dr. Nadja Milewski
  • Exogamous partnerships with immigrants in Germany: Trends, determinants and effects.
• Prof. Dr. Heike Trappe
  • Fatherhood after separation and divorce – A qualitative investigation for Rostock region.

The work on the projects is expected to start in summer term 2017. The duration is three years each. The state funds 27 research projects in the fields of humanities and social sciences implemented at the universities of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 2.5 million Euros in total. The funding is provided via the Kurt von Fritz science program of the state over the perior 2017 to 2020. It aims at promoting excellent research projects on the fields of humanities and social sciences focused on basic questions.

„Humanities and social sciences help us to better understand the world. They analyze human behaviour from past and present and open up new perspectives“, Minister of Economics Birgit Hesse emphasized. „The state strengthens basic research in the humanities and social sciences with the Kurt von Fritz science program. We intend to increase the visibility of these projects and to demonstrate that our researchers achieve excellent results“, Hesse states.