Big Boost for World-Class Research in Siegen

The University of Siegen has scored a major research coup: Its Special Research Area “Media of Cooperation” has been extended through 2027. The German Research Association has committed to an additional 11-million-euro investment in media research in Siegen.

World-class media research has a long tradition at the University of Siegen — a trend the German Research Association (DFG) has now once again confirmed. “Media of Cooperation” was established in 2016 as special research area (known in German as a Sonderforschungsbereich or SFB). The latest extension represents its third, and final, funding period. DFG has approved an addition 11 million euro in total for research in Siegen, to run through 2027. The SFB is focused on digital research into the present, exploring how digital media changes our communal lives. To do so, it investigates the creation, design, and use of digital media from interdisciplinary perspectives.

“Our congratulations go out to the entire team, especially Prof. Carolin Gerlitz as spokesperson for the SFB. This unique success for the University of Siegen is a fine tribute to the choice to engage in international competitions. The university has carved itself out a niche here. We wish the SFB tremendous success in this third funding phase and good, interesting research for all participants,” University Rector Dr. Holger Burckhart and Chancellor Ulf Richter wrote.

“As a Special Research Area, we’re thrilled that we’ll have the chance to keep working together during a third funding phase. The interdisciplinary work is tremendously enriching and inspiring for us all. Over the course of the third funding phase, we look forward to welcoming new colleagues from additional disciplines. Our goal is to provide critical support and shaping of the ongoing development of digital, data-based media. We are very pleased that our colleagues in expert communities appreciate the value of international, methods-based, and socio-technical media research as practiced here in Siegen,” noted Prof. Carolin Gerlitz, spokesperson for the SFB.

“I am thrilled that the DFG has extended the ‘Media of Cooperation’ SFB for an additional four years, meaning it will achieve the maximum possible run for a project of this type. It's of tremendous importance for the University of Siegen and shows that the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, which — with this extension — maintains its two Special Research Areas, has proven its enduring value as a hub for excellent media and cultural research,” says Prof. Daniel Stein, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

More than 60 researchers in various disciplines at the University of Siegen are involved with the “Media of Cooperation” Special Research Area. Through 15 different sub-projects, they are exploring the digital media practices of the 21st century. It is the shared view of the project’s participants that digital media can no longer be understood in terms of individual media, but rather in terms of “media of cooperation.” In this view, media are tools that allow for interpersonal cooperation — with “social media” such as Facebook, Instagram, X, and Whatsapp helping to moderate and at the same time organize our daily interactions.

For the coming funding phase, the SFB will be exploring medial cooperation in the context of sensor media at the intersection between ubiquitous data collection and artificial intelligence. At its core, the question remains as to the context of Artificial Intelligence (AI), smart media, and autonomous technologies that limit the interaction between human and technical sensors.

As part of the first funding phase, the SFB’s research focused on the pinot of perspective that comes from “individual media” to an analysis of distributed platform media. The second phase explored data-based cooperation and praxeological interventions in debates about data collection and big data.

For more information about the SFB “Media of Cooperation,” please click here.

 

Background:

On 24 November 2023, the German Research Association (DFG) announced 17 new Special Research Areas to reinforce world-class research at German universities. In addition, the decision committee also voted on the extension of 16 SFB for one additional funding period, including five SFB/Transregio. Special Research Areas are intended to promote innovative, challenging, long-term concepts in research, allowing for the establishment of centers and structures at the applying universities; they can receive up to a maximum of twelve years of funding. Starting in April 2024, the DFB will be providing funding to 278 collaborative research centers in total.