In early November, seven PRIF scientists met and discussed with executives from international organizations, federal and state ministries, non-governmental organizations and the media as part of the Mercator Science Policy Fellowship program. While last year the expert discussions could still be held at PRIF, this year they unfortunately had to take place in virtual form due to the corona pandemic.
Accordingly, the political and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was one of the Fellows' main areas of interest. But the PRIF researchers also discussed other topics with their virtual guests such as international development cooperation, the future of the European Union, security sector reforms, and the importance of social media for political processes.
Matthias Dembinski spoke with Fellows from the Federal Ministry of Finance and the OSCE: "For my research, it is very interesting to learn first-hand what questions executives deal with in their daily work. Sometimes this even gives rise to ideas for new research topics. In turn, the Fellows gain a good insight into current scientific research trends".
This year, the program's fellows came from the German Federal Ministry of Finance, the Hessian Ministry of Economics, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Stern Magazine and the NGO Welthungerhilfe. The Mercator Science-Policy Fellowship Program, initiated by the Rhine-Main Universities, has been supporting the bridging between science institutions in the Rhine-Main area and the policy sector since 2016.