Technische Universität Dortmund – Sozialforschungsstelle (TUDo)

The Social Research Centre (sfs) is a Central Scientific Institute of the TU Dortmund University and one of the long-established major research centers for social science in Germany. Founded in 1946, the former state institute is the Central Scientific Institute of the TU Dortmund University, since 2007. The overarching theme of research at the Social Research Center is social-scientific innovation research. It is researched how social innovations emerge and how they relate to technological innovations. Another focus is on the question of implementation conditions and perspectives of an economically, ecologically and socially sustainable development. The Social Research Centre participates in the design of social, technological and ecological change and innovation processes.

Around 60 employees are working in national and international projects. Since its foundation, the institute has worked on several hundred research projects with various supporters (national funding and EU funding), most of them joint projects with different partners from science and practice.

Within the research department “Transformative Governance in Cities and Regions”, in which the project ProPolis is implemented, an interdisciplinary team of social scientists coordinates and participates in various relevant projects focusing on themes at the crossroads of urban governance, sustainability, climate change and social innovation.