Interdisciplinary Studies of Science

© Michel+Wolf Architekten, Stuttgart

Whether climate change, global food supply, energy supply, health development, species extinction or water shortage is concerned: worldwide, high expectations are placed in the scientific knowledge of tomorrow to solve most of the major challenges of the 21st Century. However, the successful development, communication and application of scientific knowledge are themselves great challenges. The state of conflict, in which scientists increasingly find themselves, is in many cases intensified through the increasing economisation, politicisation and mediatisation of science. The multi-faceted responsibilities of universities should especially be taken into account in the context of challenges concerning the scientific system.

The key research area, Interdisciplinary Studies of Science, pools research in the field of humanities and social sciences regarding the social, epistemological, normative and cultural conditions of science.

In April 2016, Leibniz Center for Science and Society (LCSS) was established at Leibniz Universität Hannover to create a central location for science studies and higher education research. There, as well as at the Centre for Ethics and Law in the Life Sciences (CELLS) at the Faculty of Humanities - with its main research area in the philosophy of science and the research training group ‘Integrating Ethics and Epistemology of Scientific Research’ - as well as in further departments of the three participating faculties, researchers study science as a social, cultural and cognitive phenomenon as the focus of their research. Leibniz University Hannover has evolved into a focal point for this research.