Division Knowledge Transfer

The Knowledge Transfer division provides a wide variety of services that is directed at three main target groups: survey respondents, (potential) data users, and the general public. The many formats and activities ensure information and documentation as well as mutual exchange through dialogue with external stakeholders.

Communication with survey respondents is managed through the study website (https://www.leben-in-deutschland.de/?lang=en), information material, and interviewer briefings. 

Within academia, data users and potential data users are the most important target group. SOEPcampus workshops and SOEPtutorials offer young researchers an introduction to the SOEP data. A wide range of information and documentation materials that are published or made available online assist researchers in their work with SOEP data (e.g., SOEP Survey Papers, paneldata.org, SOEP website). The SOEP in Residence guest program enables visiting researchers to analyze the SOEP data on site at DIW Berlin with support and advice from experts on the SOEP team. The SOEPnewsletter informs on current developments, and the SOEP Community Management provides support in all matters related to using SOEP data. Research results are disseminated to the general public (including politics, media, and civil society) through publications in international journals as well as (policy) reports, such as the DIW Berlin Weekly Report or the “Social Report” (Sozialbericht) that is published jointly by the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis), the Federal Agency for Political Education (bpb), and the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB). It contains many analyses based on SOEP data. Every year, the SOEP also provides the indicators used by diverse government departments and agencies in their official reports (such as the Federal Government’s Housing Benefit and Rent Report (in German); the Report of the Minimum Wage Commission (in German); the Loneliness Barometer of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (in German); the Federal Government’s Poverty and Wealth Report (in German)). Other channels of knowledge transfer at the SOEP are the DIW’s social media, high-profile public events, the annual report and press conferences.