Our Research
Problem-oriented research on Internet & Society
The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) aims to broaden the theoretical and empirical foundation of internet and society research in order to contribute to a better understanding of digital society.
Throughout the process of digitalisation, societies are undergoing changes. Our conceptual frame of reference for identifying and assessing these societal changes is the relationship between innovation and governance. Tensions and synergies emerging from this relationship can be found across all societal fields and organisations including the state, corporations and markets, from the local to the global level.
To analyse the relationship between innovation and governance, HIIG has developed three long-term research programmes. They form the framework for the research agenda at HIIG. Further research groups, laboratories and projects strengthen this programme-oriented research. Individual research projects are usually part of a programme, group or laboratory. Different research results are presented and discussed as part of science communication projects.
Analysing the relationship between innovation and governance, HIIG has developed three long-term research programmes. They are driven by broad research questions reflecting the institute’s disciplines and provide the framework for the research activities at HIIG:
Larger research groups develop their own thematic focus to strengthen disciplinary competences in individual areas. Our inter- and transdisciplinary research laboratories work at the intersection of academia, industry and civil society. With their research, they contribute to the agenda of the three research programmes:
Science communication projects foster a productive dialogue between academia, politics, industry and civil society:
Individual research projects complement and strengthen our research. They also serve to conduct short-term studies and provide reliable results on current topics.
- All
- AI
- Entrepreneurship & innovation
- Media & data
- Politics & law
- Science & education
- Science engagement
- Society & culture
A media theory of the humanoid robot – Artificial intelligence in Japanese and European interpretations
In this project, the humanoid robots in Japan in particular will be examined with the aim of...
Acquisition logic as an obstacle to Diamond Open Access
The research project is investigating how Diamond Open Access publication model can be organised in Germany in...
Action for Interactive Anti-Polarisation Learning Experiences for a Better Democracy
The ACTILPEX consortium provides students and other interested parties with the tools to understand mechanisms of polarisation...
Autonomous Weapon Systems
The project investigates how autonomous weapon systems (AWS) are discussed in different concepts of human-machine interaction.
Between autonomy and surveillance – Employee-oriented use of People Analytics
In the research project, we are researching how people and organisations use so-called people analytics applications.
Capacities and competencies in dealing with hate speech and hostility towards science
This project develops strategies to make the science system more resilient to high publicity negative statements.
Cybersecurity
The project explores the important, both mutually beneficial and conflict-prone relationship between cybersecurity and privacy. It also...
Data & Smart City Governance using the example of air quality management
The project is developing a data governance model with which administration, business and civil society can work...
Data & Society Interface
How can we make data from private and public organisations usable for scientific purposes and for the...
The project aims to develop an analytical research framework that can be used to describe data governance...
Data Protection as a Service
In this research project we are developing, together with several research partners, solutions that help website owners...
Defining concepts of the digital society
This project seeks to substantiate the conceptual ambition of the research programme The Evolving Digital Society by...
Digital Platforms: Alternative Models and Designs
HIIG organises a five-part impulse series on the topic of digital platforms together with the Bertelsmann Stiftung's...
Digital Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship
In the “Digital Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship" research project, we investigate entrepreneurial organisations that primarily focus on...
Digitalisation and Climate
The project Digitalisation and Climate examines the economic, ecological & social dimensions of a sustainable digital economy.
Digitalisation and Sustainable Entrepreneurship
The Digitalisation and Entrepreneurship project explores sustainable digital entrepreneurship, the gig economy and the future of work.
DSA research network
This project supports and improves the implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA) through cooperative research and...
DUCAH @ HIIG
The Digital Urban Center for Aging and Health (DUCAH) is an initiative of the Internet and Society...
Generative AI in the world of work
This project investigates the significance of generative AI for individuals, organisations and occupational fields in the world...
Global Privacy Governance
This project aims to better understand processes of global negotiations, problem framing, regulation and enforcement in this...
Human in the Loop?
Das Projekt entwickelt intersektionale Fragen zur Gleichstellung. Mit unserem Fokus auf den Aufbau von Netzwerken für und...
The research project Impact AI: Evaluating the social impact of AI systems for sustainability and the sublic...
Increase corporate political responsibility and accountability of digital platforms
This project examines the growing corporate power of platform capitalism and its hegemony on several spheres of...
HIIG is involved in two of the projects as part of the BMFTR funding programme “Making Repositories...
Organisational Resilience and Creativity: Exploring the Future of Educational Technology
How can educational technology be creatively contribute to building resilient universities and equip them to cope with...
Platform governance
Platforms have installed themselves as key intermediaries in contemporary societies. They re-organise communication and politics, mobility and...
Platform://Democracy
The project "Platform://Democracy" examines how the rules of discourse on platforms can be aligned with public values.
Public Interest AI
The “Public Interest AI” research group is developing an operationalisable analysis procedure that will allow Public Interest...
Publication: Internet Policy Review
The Internet Policy Review is an open access, fast track and peer-reviewed journal on Internet regulation. It...
Repository for scientific policy and society advice
Political decisions are increasingly based on empirical research results. The project makes advisory documents specifically searchable and...
Safe in data traffic: Everyday illustration of fundamental rights at risk
Das Projekt erarbeitet Strategien, um das Wissenschaftssystem widerstandsfähiger gegen Hassrede & Wissenschaftsfeindlichkeit zu machen.
Scholar-led Plus: Tailored support for scholar-led publishing
This research project aims to improve the publication situation of scholar-led, non-APC open access gold journals through...
The project investigates the discourse and developments around AI’s “deep learning revolution” over the ten formative years.
Strengthening Digital Skills through Micro-Credentials
In a rapidly changing labour market, micro-credentials offer a flexible solution for new learning and training pathways....
Task Force: Digital Organizing
The task force Digital Organizing is a group of researchers who study the implications of digital practices...
Task Force: European Platform Economy
The “Task Force European Platform Economy” is a group of HIIG researchers who study the implications of...
The Public International Law of the Internet
The research project "The Public International Law of the Internet" at HIIG aims at redefining the relationship...
Theorising digital societies
Das Forschungsprojekt erforscht die gegenwärtigen Herausforderungen, die sich durch Digitalisierungsprozesse ergeben.
Women* in Tech
The project develops intersectional questions on equality. With our focus on building networks for and by women*,...
- All
- AI
- Entrepreneurship & innovation
- Media & data
- Politics & law
- Science & education
- Science engagement
- Society & culture
»dwerft«
In March 2014, a three-year research project on new technologies for digital moving images will start in...
ACTiSS: Action for computational social science
This educational project aims at fostering the development of computational thinking among social science students and young...
Artificial Intelligence & Knowledge Work – Implications, Opportunities and Risks
The research project focuses on the use of AI applications in the intraorganizational workplace of knowledge workers.
Artificial intelligence, explained in human terms
This project uses an interdisciplinary approach to explain models for artificial intelligence (AI) to a broad civil...
Big Data & Nudging – Regulation by Big Data and Behavioural Sciences
The research project aims at bringing together the fragmented discussions on big data-driven behavioural regulation, relating the...
Case Study: Innovation and Imitation in the Games Sector
The Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society is currently launching an 18-month study into the...
In our project we do research on workers participation on digital platforms by examining new forms and...
Creative uses and cross – border copyright regulation
The Internet and digitisation simplify access to copyright protected works, and facilitate their distribution and use. However,...
Data Cooperation Platforms for SMEs
The project Data Cooperation Platforms for SMEs (DaPla Mittelstand) is exploring how small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)...
The sharing and re-use of digital data can foster innovation and increase economic and social welfare. However,...
We developed a prototype for e-voting and e-polling based upon digital identity and Random-Sample Voting. The project...
Demystifying AI in entrepreneurship
The AI production process is not a magic blackbox, but rather an entrepreneurial process designed and carried...
Digital Civil Disobedience
The political phenomenon of civil disobedience has undergone a remarkable change in recent times, with the expression...
Digital Electoral Compass 2021
The Digital Electoral Compass is intended to create transparency, show the parties' positions on digital policy issues...
The respective projects do not only take place in different functional areas of the companies, but are...
DREAM (Digital Research Mining)
As part of the DREAM project, a mobile application is being developed that simplifies the search for...
Empirical Copyright Research
The research project Empirical Copyright Research contributes to the nascent field of empirical copyright research with innovative...
Entrepreneurship Research Lab
Our Innovation and Entrepreneurship team is a transdisciplinary group of researchers at the Alexander von Humboldt Institute...
Freedom of Expression in the Quasi-Public Sphere
The emerging publics on the Internet heavily rely on the infrastructure and platforms provided by private entities...
Gemeinsam Digital
_Gemeinsam digital, the Mittelstand 4.0-Kompetenzzentrum Berlin, is a central contact point for all companies in Berlin and...
Goodcoin – Robust Privacy for Loyalty Programmes and Payment Systems
The processing of customer data plays an important role both in traditional business and e-commerce.
How to collaborate with startups?
It is obvious that the tremendous differences in terms of culture, available resources and agility between corporates...
IMPaQT – Indicators, Measurement and Performance of Quality Assurance: Third-Mission-Activities in the Social Sciences
The research project “IMPaQT” is about making knowledge transfer from research to society measurable through quality criteria...
Index of Internet-based Innovation
The Index of Internet-based Innovations illustrates how sectors, regions and companies utilise the Internet when developing new...
Innovation and Imitation in the Games Sector
This 2-year study investigated the tension between innovation and imitation in the Digital Games Industry. In this...
Innovative Open Access in small sciences (InnOAccess)
The project builds on prior work by the Internet Policy Review, published by HIIG since 2012. This...
Internet of Things: Entrepreneurship & eGovernment
Our research project is divided into two areas. First, we examine the issue from the perspective of...
Jung. Digital. Engagiert.
The project Jung. Digital. Engagiert. ties in thematically with the Third Engagement Report, in which civic engagement...
KORSE @ HIIG – the Internet and civil security in Europe
The emergence of cyberspace has challenged the law of civil security in Europe. Today, nearly all aspects...
Learn. Match. Partner.
The aim of the first phase is to develop an understanding of the functioning and basic principles...
Networks of Outrage
In the past decade, Europe has witnessed the birth of many movements at the right end of...
Open!NEXT – Open and community-based innovation processes
New collaborations between company & consumer to foster the idea of open source and open innovation in...
Opening Science
It seems as though the digitalisation of research is accompanied by a revision of established research practices...
Organisational Adaptivity in the German Higher Education Context
In this project, we investigate the digitalisation of higher education, with a focus placed on exploring the...
Participating through the Outernet
Due to technological progress and a price decline in display technologies, it is believed that almost any...
Participation in German Law
In the context of a comprehensive project concerning online participation in cooperation with the Hans-Bredow-Institute, the sub-project...
Pelagios Network: Linking the places of your past
The project investigates new methodologies for using Linked Data to connect historical sources through common references using...
Platform Alternatives
The project team will derive Corporate Governance Principles for digital platforms that seek to distribute collectively created...
Platform Governance and Copyright
This project tackles these issues from two complementary perspectives. It investigates the governance structures that social media...
Privacy by design in smart cities
How to build smart cities in a privacy and security-friendly way, when more and more movements and human…
Ranking Digital Rights
Ranking Digital Rights (RDR) works to promote freedom of expression and privacy on the internet by creating...
The Digital Administrative State
Our research contributes to this debate by investigating the relationship between the Internet and public institutions as...
The discursive and political construction of AI
This project empirically investigates the discursive and political construction of AI in contemporary societies. We have started...
The Ethics of Digitalisation – From Principles to Practices
This research project aims to develop groundbreaking answers to challenges in the area of conflict between ethics...
The Futures of Telemedicine: Knowledge, Policy, Regulation
Digital health cards, electronic health records, medical telematics infrastructure – these are the terms dominating the public...
The Third Engagement Report
The Third Engagement Report is a report on civic engagement that focuses on "The Future of Civil...
twentyforty
This project explores how digital technologies will continue to shape our work, relationships, education, governance and existence...
User innovation in smart energy technologies
Interconnected, intelligent energy systems are a highly discussed issue. Such systems are used by customers to control...
Wahlkompass Digitales
Click here for Wahlkompass 2021 Digital policy will be a focal point of the German federal elections…