The German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) recommends admission of SAFE to the Leibniz Association

The German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) has rated the application of the LOEWE Center SAFE as "excellent" and recommended to admit it to the Leibniz Association as of 2020. The final decision on admission is expected to be taken by the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz) in April / May 2019.

In September 2017, the State of Hessen had applied for the admission of the Research Center SAFE ("Sustainable Architecture for Finance in Europe") located in the House of Finance of Goethe University Frankfurt to the Leibniz Association. Following the acceptance of the application by the Joint Science Conference, SAFE was evaluated last year by the Leibniz Association and the German Council of Science and Humanities. The Council advises the Federal Government and the State Governments of the federal states with regard to the content-related and structural development of universities, science, and research. SAFE has received the best possible rating with the grade "excellent".

 "We are very pleased with the vote of the German Council of Science and Humanities and proud that our work has convinced the academic experts," says Jan Pieter Krahnen, Director Research of SAFE. According to him, the recommendation reinforces SAFE's commitment and great dedication to advance projects in research and policy advice. "Now we hope that the Joint Science Conference will also take a positive decision so that SAFE can start as a Leibniz Institute in 2020," says Krahnen.

"This is great news," says Prof. Dr. Birgitta Wolff, President of Goethe University. "SAFE has thus reached another important milestone on its way to become a Leibniz Institute. I thank Jan Pieter Krahnen and his team for their extremely productive and successful work. And I thank the Hessen State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts for their unwavering support, not least through their LOEWE program. SAFE shows that a continuous and sustainable development of high-performance scientific priorities pays off in the medium and long term. Now we all keep our fingers crossed that the last important hurdle will be mastered successfully."

After Hessen's Minister for Higher Education, Research and the Arts, Angela Dorn herself, attended the meeting of the German Council of Science and Humanities last Friday, she thanked its members for their work. "I am very pleased with the excellent rating of SAFE by the Council. On this basis, I am confident that, together, we can realize the admission of SAFE in the Leibniz Association."

The Research Center SAFE is a cooperation of the Goethe University Frankfurt and the Center for Financial Studies, which has been funded by the Hessian State Program for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence (LOEWE) since 2013. SAFE aims to explore the requirements for an optimal regulatory framework for European financial markets and their players. In order to capture the complexity of the markets and their interaction with the economy, politics and central banks in all important components, the LOEWE Center relies on the interdisciplinary cooperation of around 40 professors, 20 postdocs and 50 doctoral researchers as well as a large network of scientists from research institutions worldwide in the fields of finance, micro- and macroeconomics, law, and sociology. In addition to research, one of the center´s core concerns is to contribute to sustainable, stability- and growth-oriented  policymaking through professional policy advice based on research output. The SAFE Policy Center maintains an ongoing dialogue with high-level decision-makers from politics, central banks, and regulators in Brussels, Berlin and Wiesbaden / Frankfurt.

The Leibniz Association connects 95 independent research institutes from a wide range of disciplines, which deal with socially, economically and ecologically relevant issues. It sets priorities in knowledge transfer and advises and informs politics, science, business, and the public. The Leibniz Institutes employ around 19,100 people, including 9,900 scientists. In the field of Economics, the following institutes belong to the Leibniz Association:  The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), the Ifo Institute, the Leibniz Institute for the World Economy (IfW), the Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW).

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