Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung

What are the topics that will drive research at Bielefeld University in the future? With its Focus Groups, ZiF supports the profile-building process at Bielefeld University. Researchers involved in the Focus Areas can spend some time at ZiF together with international guests to deepen and further develop interdisciplinary research projects. Four Focus Area accepted the offer and are now working at ZiF. Here is an overview of their topics:

Design: Corinna Mehl

Contestations of Gender & Democracy: Concepts, Theoretical Perspectives, and Empirical Fields 
Democracy, gender equality, and pluralism are increasingly contested—visible, for example, in debates around reproductive rights and new forms of gendered racism. ConGeD examines how gendered modes of existence and their transformations have become contested topics and why they are focal points of anti-democratic politics. Using an intersectional approach, ConGeD aims to advance interdisciplinary gender research both locally and globally.

Individualization in Changing Environments
Individuals differ from one another in many ways—even in cases of genetic similarities and shared environmental contexts in which they live. Why and how such differences arise, what consequences they have for individuals and their actions, and how these differences affect the communities in which individuals live is still largely unclear. These questions are addressed in very different research areas across various disciplines, with differences in the understanding of individualization and in their focus. The group brings together researchers from more than ten disciplines to consolidate existing knowledge about individualization processes and fill research gaps through innovative, interdisciplinary approaches.

Quantifying and Managing Uncertainty
Uncertainty is a defining feature of contemporary life: financial crises, climate change, public health, pandemics, and pension sustainability all depend on how well we understand and manage unknowns. QUAMU develops innovative methods across economics, mathematics, and statistics—with relevance far beyond economics, including data science, sports, psychology, and biology. By combining decision theory, game theory, mathematics, biology, and statistics, the group builds interdisciplinary bridges and contributes robust tools for dealing with uncertainty.

The Ambivalence of Autonomy and Its Resolution Through Assisted Autonomy 
Autonomy is both a cornerstone of emancipation and a major ethical challenge—especially when cognitively impaired persons face medically relevant decisions and their capacity to consent may be limited. This focus group examines that tension and develops the concept of Assisted Autonomy: support measures and technologies designed to strengthen self-determination without undermining it—highly relevant in the context of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In interdisciplinary workshops scholars from philosophy, medical ethics, computer science, sociology, psychology, and health sciences, as well as experts by experience discuss topics such as theoretical foundations, practical implementations, and the role of AI assistance systems.

We are happy to host these groups and to see the lively discussions in all corners of ZiF.