Newsletter: February 2016

With home offices, globalization and digital colleagues, the world of work is undergoing some profound changes. Many research institutions in Germany are exploring what prompted this transformation, what concrete effects the changes will have and how the employment market might look in the future. 

Machines are becoming more and more intelligent, and have long been changing the world of work. It is also conceivable that robots could work in nursing care or perform demanding or hazardous tasks in industry – but this would require them to have some very special capabilities. 

Burnout is not a fad but a serious medical condition – and Dresden-based researchers are conducting the world’s first long-term study of its kind in a bid to prove it. They intend to gather scientific data until 2027 in order to help find a solution to a very significant problem in our society. 

Digitization is changing the face of politics, be it in the area of e-government or espionage conducted by digital means. PhD student Sylvio Henrique Neto from Brazil is exploring the precise relationship between politics and information technology. He explains in our interview what he finds so fascinating about this subject and why he is currently conducting his research in Germany. 

A welcome portal set up by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, “Make it in Germany” answers key questions about pursuing a career and living in Germany.

Most people would probably be happy if they never had to do any more cleaning, washing or ironing. As a matter of fact, these and many other laborious chores around the home could soon be performed by robots. Daniel Leidner from the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) is working with his colleagues on the necessary technologies and explains when this might finally happen. 

The world is more interlinked than ever before in terms of commodity flows and logistics, and this is increasingly noticeable in research, too, with many companies conducting their research all over the world. Companies from 51 countries pursue research activities in Germany.