Cluster project ConTrust receives state funding in preparation for the next round in the excellence strategy

The interplay of conflict and trust is at the centre of the ConTrust cluster project, which is to enter the race for the Goethe University in the next round of excellence by the federal and state governments. Professors Nicole Deitelhoff and Rainer Forst and their colleagues applied for funding for the preparation phase with the State of Hesse – with success: a total of almost 10 million euros will be provided to the project by 2025, about half of which will come from the Hessian state budget.

The new project has been developed out of the former cluster “The Formation of Normative Orders”, but the perspective has shifted, as has the composition of the research team. “The cluster laid the foundation and forms the platform for joint research,” says Rainer Forst, who teaches political theory and philosophy at Goethe University. Yet the approach is methodologically and substantively new and innovative, and so the speakers are particularly pleased about the funding approval: „Now we can really get going again – with a nice tailwind,“ adds Forst. ConTrust is being funded with 4.8 million euros from state funds and 4.9 million euros of its own funds through Goethe University and the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; the researchers involved contribute a quarter of this amount themselves.  „We are very grateful for the recognition expressed in this decision. And we thank the many people involved for their courage in breaking new ground and the Normative Orders team for their great commitment,“ says Nicole Deitelhoff. Now the task is to prepare the relevant preliminary work for a cluster proposal in 2025. If the project emerges successfully from the next round of excellence in 2027, Frankfurt can be further expanded as an international centre for trust and conflict research.

The Research Center Normative Orders, led by Goethe University and backed by a number of partner institutions, has an interdisciplinary profile and unites representatives of different research departments. With regard to the Faculty of Economics and Business, the researchers Prof. Guido Friebel, Ph.D. and Prof. Nicola Fuchs-Schündeln, Ph.D. are substantially involved in the project.

Source: Press release Goethe University of February 10, 2021 (The text has been edited for length and clarity)
 
Further details: www.normativeorders.net/de/