ABIDA – a new research cluster on the social effects of big data

Big data cause a lot of problems in the European discussion. The impact of the new tools to evaluate huge amounts of data for the society is rather unclear. Concepts like privacy or data property might be undermined by these instruments. This was one the reasons why the Federal Government in Germany decided to finance an interdisciplinary research cluster cluster on big data and society. The cluster will start in April 2015; it is funded with 7 million € for a period of four years. The cluster called ABIDA (Assessing Big data) will be coordinated by the Institute for Information law (ITM) in Münster (Germany) and will include the universities of Karlsruhe (ITAS as co-ordinating partner), Hannover,  Munich and Dortmund and - we are all happy for that - the Humboldt University of Berlin (Prof. Dr. Jeanette Hofmann; best wishes to her). The project combines the expertise of researchers in the field sof law, sociology, political science, philosophy and informatics.

For further questions please contact Prof. Dr. Thomas Hoeren, ITM, Leonardo-Campus 9, 48149 Münster, Germany, hoeren@uni-muenster.de