Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES)
The Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) was founded in 1989 as an interdisciplinary research institute belonging to the University of Mannheim. It is the largest research institution in the field of social sciences at a German university and also assumes a leading position at international level. Currently, more than 80 researchers work at the MZES, studying social and political developments in Europe. They collaborate with more than one hundred academic partners all over the world.
The MZES is successful in attracting long-term research funding, allowing for the employment of many early-stage researchers. Most of the research projects are headed by professors from the School of Social Sciences in Mannheim. The MZES is located in building A5 on the campus of the University of Mannheim.
Research at MZES is theory-oriented and committed to the empirical-analytical tradition of social science methodology. It is based on cross-national comparative and multi-level analytical approaches and combines perspectives from Sociology and Political Science. Its unique profile provides the MZES with a distinctive and leading position in the relevant international research landscape.
