The “Social Cohesion” Research Atlas website visualizes research projects on the subject of social cohesion within the Berlin research hub. The interactive website is part of the Grand Challenge Forum on Social Cohesion of the Grand Challenge Initiative of the Berlin University Alliance (BUA). The aim of the project is to visualize current research activities in Berlin as well as research needs. It is intended to give more visibility to research currently being conducted as well as to social themes and new interfaces. With the help of the research atlas, different contents on the topic of social cohesion can be discussed from a transdisciplinary perspective. The website was technically developed and its content implemented by the Humboldt-Viadrina Governance Platform.

For the creation of the research atlas, all 55 funded projects of the BUA pre-call in 2019 on the topic of social cohesion were clustered into 23 topic blocks and laid out in a mind map. For example, the topics of sports, culture, housing, religion, climate change, and digitization were represented. Subsequently, interviews with experts from science and research, the economy, administration, and society helped to identify objectives, connections, and research gaps. In addition to the 55 pre-call projects, the BUA has approved six research projects under the funding line. They are exploration projects that that take an inter- and transdisciplinary approach to examine what holds our society together. The unifying question of the research projects, which will initially run for three years, is: What are the preconditions, dynamics, perspectives, and limits of social cohesion? On the basis of these factors, the projects demonstrate structures that can contribute to a stable and prosperous future for societies over the long term. The exploration projects are also included in the “Social Cohesion” research atlas.