“With the publisher De Gruyter, the Dahlem Konferenzen of Freie Universität Berlin has found a partner competently represented in all areas of knowledge and operating worldwide. This collaboration emphasizes the objectives of the International Network University,” said the acting president of Freie Universität Berlin, Prof. Dr. Ursula Lehmkuhl.

With the Dahlem Konferenzen®, Freie Universität Berlin offers the international science community a forum for interdisciplinary exchange open to all disciplines. This exchange leads to new research approaches, and new goals for research can be set. During the workshops, usually held for a week, there is an opportunity to hold in-depth discussions in small groups. The conference language is English.

The Dahlem Konferenzen®, held since 1974, early on took up fundamental issues that are now part of well-established research fields, e.g., in the areas of climate impact research or the neurosciences. Meanwhile, the social sciences and humanities are included alongside the natural sciences.

Themes of past and future conferences are:

• “Is there a Mathematics of Social Entities?” (2008)
• “Infection, Inflammation, and Chronic Inflammatory Disorders: Common and Divergent Solutions to Problems at the Host-Environment Interface” (2009)
•  “New  Approaches in Economics after the Financial Crisis” (2010)
•  “Rethinking Biodiversity Management in the Anthroposcene” (2011)
• “Knowledge, Domination, and the Public in Africa” (2011)

In April 2009 the De Gruyter publishing house initiated De Gruyter Open Library, an open access model for publishing research papers. The Dahlem Workshop Reports enable De Gruyter to extend this model to include books in the natural sciences. “With the publication model for the Dahlem Workshop Reports series, our publishing house is reacting to the changing interests of authors, customers, and partners,” according to Dr. Sven Fund, CEO at De Gruyter. “With the cooperation agreement for this series, we are in a position to implement for the second time – the first was the interdisciplinary humanities series Topoi –  what is required by research funding institutions such as the German Research Foundation (DFG), namely free access to research funded by taxes.”

De Gruyter: The independent academic publisher De Gruyter can look back on a 260-year history. The publisher with headquarters in Berlin publishes over 800 new monographs annually in the fields of the humanities, medicine, natural sciences, and law as well as over 120 professional journals and digital media. Half of the publications appear in English. www.degruyter.com

Dahlem Konferenzen®: With the Dahlem Konferenzen®, Freie Universität Berlin offers the international science community a forum for interdisciplinary exchange open to all disciplines. This exchange leads to new research approaches, and new research goals can be set. www.fu-berlin.de/dahlem