Diversity & Inclusion

Diversity has become a real buzzword in the past few years, but often times it is hard to grasp what is really meant by the concept.

Diversity refers to the fact that societies are made up of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and individual circumstances. These can be social categories such as gender, sexual orientation and migration history or less visible differences such as marital status or personal character traits. As these individual differences exist in society, they are also carried into organisations, where the differences coexist and can lead to tensions and discrimination if they are not seen and acknowledged.

Diversity management in organisations serves to increase awareness and, above all, appreciation of these individual differences. The aim is to ensure that different backgrounds do not lead to conflict, but to more creativity, more innovation and therefore more excellent research.

Albert Einstein himself had emphasized the role of diversity for intelligent and well-rounded augmentation of scientific knowledge:

"We must not only learn to tolerate our differences. We must welcome them as the richness and diversity which can lead to true intelligence."

In this spirit, we see diversity as a basis for innovative, internationally influential and excellent research. That is why we are constantly working hard on creating an environment in which individual differences are valued and everybody's potential can develop unhindered.

The main focus of our work currently is

• the promotion of equal opportunities for researchers of all genders
• the support of researchers with families to achieve a good compatibility of work and family life 
• initiatives for international and LGBTQ researchers in the Cluster

Explore our Diversity website to find information on Childcare Options, Career Promotion, Soft Skill Seminars, Networking Events, Panel Discussions and many more.