Research Infrastructures

How can research data be made available in the long term? How can information on adult and continuing education be made available in an open, reliable and sustainable manner? And which infrastructures support research and knowledge transfer? The ‘Research Infrastructures’ division addresses these questions.

Research infrastructures comprise data, information resources and digital services that enable and sustainably support scientific research. The department develops and operates such infrastructures for national and international research in adult and continuing education. At the same time, it provides key resources for educational reporting, associations and continuing education institutions, and supports research work at the DIE with services in the areas of research data management, research information and digital applications. In doing so, it works closely with partners in the National Research Data Infrastructure, the Research Data in Education Network and the Leibniz Association. All activities are based on the principles of Open Science: data, information and research results should be as open, traceable and usable in the long term as possible.

The department’s work is structured around three key areas:

The establishment and further development of research data collections and infrastructures form the core of the department’s work. The department is responsible for its own data collections and participates in collaborative research infrastructures within the NFDI. In terms of content, the focus is on the processing of text and process data and their use with AI-supported methods.

With the Adult Education Centre Statistics, which have been compiled since 1962, and the Adult Education Centre Programme Archive, in which Adult Education Centre programmes have been systematically collected and archived since 1957, the Institute has two datasets that are internationally outstanding in terms of their breadth and historical depth for adult education.

Through its resources for educational reporting and practice, the department offers low-threshold, interactive access to data and educational materials for practitioners, policymakers and the general public. In addition, staff provide advice on the data and produce special analyses on request.

The Specialised Library for Adult Education combines traditional information services with modern research services. It provides literature, databases, digital collections and archives, and supports researchers in areas including open access, research information and research data management. In doing so, it helps to permanently preserve scientific information and sources on adult and continuing education, make them visible and ensure they remain accessible for research and practice.

Research data management supports the sustainable preservation, documentation and reuse of research data. In doing so, research data is stored in accordance with the principles of good scientific practice and – whilst taking legal and data protection requirements into account – made accessible for scientific reuse wherever possible. The DIE Research Data Policy describes the principles and framework conditions for handling research data at the DIE.