The Coordinating Office ESF operates under the joint leadership of Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn, Head of the Center for Research on Education and Human Development and Director of the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF) in Frankfurt/Main and Prof. Dr. Gerd Schulte-Körne, Director of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine, and Psychotherapy of KUM University Hospital (Klinikum der Universität München). Twelve projects (4 joint and 8 single projects) are involved in this nationwide research priority. Representatives of other projects belonging to the BMBF Framework Programme for the Promotion of Empirical Educational Research were also able to take part in this second meeting of the Coordinating Office and used the opportunity to communicate with other scientists. 

 

Prof. Dr. Marcus Hasselhorn and Dr. Gesa Münchhausen (BMBF) opened the event. As representative of  Project Management Agency PT-DLR – part of the German Aerospace Center – Dr. Benedict Kaufmann informed project staff about the general administrative framework concerning a possible continuation of the funded projects. At the beginning of the meeting, the Coordinating Office for the research priority ESF gave an account of their current operations. In the course of this three-day-event, the ESF projects also reported on the current status of their research work. In addition, a number of internationally recognized scientists contributed to the meeting by giving expert lectures on school-related developmental disorders from a theoretical, empirical, and intervention-oriented perspective. The scientific discourse on diagnostic criteria and possibilities for intervention regarding dyslexia and dyscalculia was not only of great interest to members of the priority program, but also to the staff of the other projects. This led to a vivid and productive academic discussion.