DIPF finds a new name and a new home
DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education: this is the new name of the institute, which has been known for diverse scientific achievements in education for more than 65 years. At the same time, DIPF has relocated to the newly completed building on Campus Westend in Frankfurt am Main.
”We have assumed our new name to identify our central areas of work and emphasize our membership with the Leibniz Association“, explains Professor Dr. Marc Rittberger, Deputy Executive Director at DIPF, which is retaining this acronym while changing its full name to DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education. By focusing on empirical educational research, scientific infrastructures and knowledge transfer, DIPF contributes to improving access to and quality of education. DIPF has been a member of the Leibniz Association since the latter was founded in 1990. The Association unites 93 independent scientific institutions from many disciplines. Leibniz institutes work on aspects that are relevant for society, economics, and ecology. Due to the importance of the institutions for the country as a whole, they are funded jointly by the Federation and the Länder.
To give some examples of its best known work, in many cases involving co-operation partners, DIPF is engaged in the national education report, the research centre on early human development IDeA (Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk), relevant contributions to international student assessments such as PISA, the Centre for Technology Based Assessment (TBA Centre) and the German Education Server and the German Education Portal – central portals of DIPF’s scientific infrastructure. Around 300 people are employed at the institute who mostly work in Frankfurt, whilst some are employed at the second location in Berlin, where BBF, the Research Library for the History of Education at DIPF, can be found.
Moving to the scientific heart of Frankfurt
Parallel to renaming the institute, another important step has been taken: following the completion of its new build, the institute has relocated to Campus Westend in Frankfurt. This means that all the employees in Frankfurt are now working under the same roof after being distributed across two locations in Frankfurt before. “Besides Goethe University Frankfurt, many other science institutions can be found on the campus, which represents the scientific core of the city. This offers excellent conditions for networked collaboration on relevant matters, and we are looking forward to this“, says Professor Rittberger.
The new build is modern and tailored to the needs of the institute with 7,800 square metres of usage space, spanning one basement floor, six semi-basement floors and seven tower floors. The new build holds a laboratory complex with rooms for testing children, a library for researchers on education, teachers and teacher trainees, a large conference area and a nursery, which is jointly used by DIPF and Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung. The construction period took around three years, and the building cost around 42.9 million euros. The state of Hesse and the federal government contributed equal shares of funding.
Further details regarding the new build:
• Design: architects K9, Freiburg
(successfully ran against 21 other competitors)
• Official start of building: 16 July 2015
• Located at the north-western gateway to Campus Westend
• 49,53 m high, currently the highest building on the Campus Westend
• Two metres height of foundation plate
• More than 800 prefabricated pillars
• 21 metres height of atrium ceiling
• Detached spiral staircase in atrium
• Natural limestone facade cladded with Dietfurt limestone
Press contact:
Philip Stirm, DIPF, +49 (0)69 24708-123, stirm@dipf.de, www.dipf.de/en/
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Professor Dr. Marc Rittberger, +49 (0)69 24708-327, rittberger@dipf.de
Weitere Informationen:
http://www.dipf.de/en/ – more about the DIPF