INTERNATIONALES FORSCHUNGSZENTRUM FUER SOZIALE UND ETHISCHE FRAGEN

Their core work

The International Research Centre for Social and Ethical Questions (IFZ) in Salzburg specializes in applied social ethics and the empirical study of values-driven challenges in contemporary European society. Their work sits at the intersection of social philosophy, qualitative social research, and communication analysis — examining how societies frame contested issues such as migration, inclusion, and solidarity. In practice, this means contributing ethical frameworks, multiperspectivity methods, and narrative analysis to large interdisciplinary research consortia. Their recent work on the OPPORTUNITIES project also demonstrates capacity for art-based science dissemination, bridging academic research and broader public audiences.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 project (RE-InVEST, 2015-2019), the centre worked on broad questions of European social cohesion — how solidarity, trust, and inclusive values can be rebuilt through social investment policies after the post-2008 crisis. No granular keywords survive from that period, but the project title and pillar (P3-SOCIETY) indicate a macro-level, policy-facing orientation. By 2021, with OPPORTUNITIES, the focus sharpened considerably: the work became much more specific about migration, media framing, multiperspectivity in storytelling, and the conditions for fair intercultural dialogue, including experimental methods like cross-talk and art-based outputs. The trajectory is a move from broad European values research toward communication-focused, media-aware social ethics with a migration specialisation.

They are moving toward a distinct niche in narrative ethics and media analysis around migration, combining social ethics with empirical communication research — a profile well-suited for future projects on digital public spheres, disinformation, or intercultural integration policy.

How they like to work

IFZ has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as consortium partner, contributing specialist expertise rather than driving project management. Despite only two projects, they have accumulated 28 unique consortium partners across 13 countries, which implies they join large, multi-partner Research and Innovation Actions (average ~14 partners per project). This suggests they are sought out as a focused specialist node in broad social science consortia, not as an institutional anchor or infrastructure hub.

With 28 unique partners across 13 countries from just two projects, their network is genuinely European in reach, likely spanning Western and Central Europe given the social cohesion and migration themes. There is no evidence of repeated partnerships with the same organisations, suggesting they bring value as a specialist that diverse consortia seek out rather than building a stable cluster of recurring collaborators.

What sets them apart

IFZ occupies an unusual position as a dedicated research centre for social and ethical questions — not a university department, not a think tank, but an independent institute that brings normative and ethical analysis into empirical EU research consortia. Their combination of social ethics with narrative dynamics, multiperspectivity methods, and art-based dissemination is relatively rare in the H2020 landscape. For a consortium needing a partner who can bridge ethical frameworks, qualitative social research, and accessible public communication around contested social topics, IFZ offers a specific and hard-to-replicate profile.

Highlights from their portfolio

• OPPORTUNITIES
  The most distinctive project in their portfolio, introducing the 'Level Telling Field' concept for migration narratives and combining social media attitude analysis with cross-talk experiments and art-based dissemination — an unusually creative methodological mix for social ethics research.
• RE-InVEST
  An early large-scale RIA on rebuilding European solidarity through social investment, demonstrating the centre's capacity to contribute to high-level European social policy research consortia.