Projects

SynCom projects focus on synthesis across centres within the Research Field Earth and Environment, and on stakeholder communication.

Funding works in a direct and targeted way: When a project needs financing for a workshop or parliamentary event, for instance, a specific budget is alloted to these events. Other than that, there is no financial support.

Whereas the goal of a third-party funded project is to create knowledge, SynCom projects aim to synthesize knowledge that has already been generated by the scientific community, and to transfer said knowledge to stakeholders and politicians.

The outreach of SynCom projects can have quite an impact as SynCom leads the way to organizing more professional transfer and networking events than regular scientific projects are able to deliver at this point.

There is no specific quota.

All up there is room for three projects per season in order to be able to focus on and support them properly with the limited resources SynCom has at its disposal.

Yes, in addition to the requirements of “2 topics” and “2 centers”, other partners can join SynCom projects.

They are quite open to new scientists, as long as any addition makes sense from a scientific and networking point of view.

The representatives at the centers, the so-called Anchor persons. They know which topics and prospective projects have societal relevance and fit in within the Program “Changing Earth”.

Each project has one or more leading scientists who guide a respective project from a scientific point of view.

Furthermore, the SynCom Board gives advice on what type of format might be suitable for a respective project.

SynCom is designed to take on the role of consultant to (federal) politics and the public. It further aims to enable the creation of networks and synergy effects, particularly for the scientific community within the Research Field Earth and Environment.

To avoid redundancy and maintain information flow about all ongoing communication, SynCom closely cooperates with the press departments of the centres.

SynCom is meant to function as an instrument of PoF IV with the purpose of increasing research synthesis and interconnecting the seven centers of the Research Field Earth and Environment. The Research Field’s SynCom activities will be evaluated by the end of PoF IV.

Thus, being part of a SynCom project will put these goals into practice, and also take your research and your outlook on it to the next level.

On a practical level, unique opportunities ensue to participate in an event such as the parliamentary dinner at the Bundestag in November 2022.

SynCom wants to implement as many projects as possible, and it wants to be able to deal with issues that are currently socially and politically relevant.

Following its time as a SynCom project, any project can easily evolve into another kind of Helmholtz initiative or project.

It is important that outreach activities start at the beginning - or even before the onset of a project - and are maintained throughout a project. The exchange with stakeholders and politicians should be an ongoing process. We want to establish a culture of dialogue  and co-creation rather than traditional unidirectional communication.

There is a difference between "process understanding turned actionable knowledge", and "solutions which are expected from scientists" – thus it is important to address the right stakeholders for creating actionable knowledge on the one hand, and for creating solutions on the other.

Furthermore, politicians always welcome the opportunity to connect with science and to ask questions.

Yes, this has already been a substantial part of the current projects.

For some projects an overview has been established about non-SynCom, Helmholtz projects that are ongoing in a specific area, e.g. on the topic of and within the SynCom project “Cities and Climate Change".