Personnel news of February 5, 2013
As of February 1, 2013, macroeconomist Marcel Fratzscher, former Head of the International Policy Analysis Division at the European Central Bank (ECB), will be assuming his new role as President of DIW Berlin. "I look forward to my new responsibilities and am committed to working with the entire staff of DIW Berlin to fulfill our mission of excellence in research and policy advice," said Fratzscher in a recent interview. "DIW Berlin should not only be counted among the most important and outstanding research institutes nationally and internationally; as a think tank, it should also spur debate and provide policymakers with theoretically coherent and empirically robust work that can serve as a foundation for decision making."
Former SOEP Director Gert G. Wagner, who was at the helm of DIW Berlin during its restructuring over the past two years and its successful evaluation by the Leibniz Association in 2012, will resume responsibilities for the SOEP on February 1, but in a new role that has been designed to strengthen the research relationship between the SOEP and DIW Berlin. As a scientific member of the Executive Board, Gert G. Wagner will hold special responsibility for the SOEP, which has gained a more prominent position within the institute in recent years.
The Board of Trustees also approved Jürgen Schupp as the Director of the SOEP as of February 1, 2013. Schupp had been appointed Interim Director of the SOEP in 2011 by the DIW Berlin Board of Trustees based on his dedicated and successful work as Director of the SOEP Research Infrastructure at DIW Berlin.
Schupp and Wagner will continue the expansion of the SOEP study. Alongside the quantitative enlargement of the sample, which has been underway for the last few years, their plans include the addition of a new sub-sample of immigrants and individuals with a migration background in 2013. Furthermore, special surveys are to be conducted this fall as part of the new SOEP Innovation Sample using topics that were selected as part of a competitive process. Efforts will also be stepped up to improve the SOEP's international networking with other longitudinal studies and to develop new forms of cooperation.