LEIBNIZ-INSTITUT FUR MEDIENFORSCHUNG/HANS-BREDOW-INSTITUT

Their core work

The Hans Bredow Institute (HBI) is Germany's leading independent media research institute, based in Hamburg, combining empirical social science, legal analysis, and policy-oriented expertise on how digital media and technology reshape society. Their work spans two interconnected concerns: protecting children and young people in digital environments, and understanding how large-scale media platforms affect European culture, information quality, and democratic discourse. They produce evidence bases that directly inform EU media regulation debates, making them a bridge between academic research and policy. Their European comparative perspective — studying media systems across member states rather than within a single country — is a defining feature of their research approach.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their earliest H2020 involvement (CO:RE, 2020), HBI's focus was squarely on the micro-level experience of individual users — specifically children — navigating online risks and opportunities, with an emphasis on evidence-gathering and youth-facing digital policy. By 2021, with EUMEPLAT, the focus expanded dramatically to macro-level structural analysis: how entire media ecosystems are reshaping European culture, how platformization reconfigures cultural industries, and how phenomena like fake news and migration coverage interact with media market regulation. The shift is from child protection research to platform governance and European media system analysis — a move from individual harm to systemic impact.

HBI is moving toward becoming a core academic voice in EU platform regulation debates — a direction that is likely to grow as the Digital Services Act and AI Act generate sustained demand for independent media research expertise.

How they like to work

HBI both leads and joins consortia: they coordinated CO:RE, taking on the project management and knowledge-synthesis role, while participating as a domain expert in EUMEPLAT. With 20 distinct consortium partners across just two projects, they clearly work in broad, multi-institutional European networks rather than tight bilateral relationships. This pattern suggests they are sought after as credible, well-connected research partners who can anchor the media and society expertise in larger cross-sector consortia.

HBI has built a network of 20 unique consortium partners spanning 16 countries from just two projects — an unusually broad reach for an institution of this size. Their network is distinctly European in scope, consistent with their focus on comparative EU media systems research.

What sets them apart

HBI occupies a rare niche as a standalone Leibniz research institute dedicated entirely to media research, giving it independence that university groups and commercial consultancies lack — a quality regulators and policymakers value when commissioning evidence. Unlike single-country media observatories, HBI operates with an explicitly European comparative lens, making them a natural fit for consortia that need to reconcile differing national media environments. For a consortium builder, they bring both the academic rigor of the Leibniz Association and direct connections to German and EU media policy networks.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CO:RE
  HBI served as coordinator, leading a Europe-wide effort to synthesize research evidence on children and digital technologies — a rare leadership role for a mid-sized research institute, signalling strong project management and convening capacity.
• EUMEPLAT
  This RIA project is HBI's largest funded project (EUR 305,675) and demonstrates their ability to contribute to research-intensive work on platform externalities, cultural industries, and fake news across European media systems.