About us

The research proposal for the establishment of the NEPS written by the later NEPS consortium is positively evaluated by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in summer 2008 and funding is strongly recommended.

The NEPS starts in 2009 as a third-party funded project at the Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg at the Institute for Educational Longitudinal Research (INBIL). It is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) until 2013.

In 2009, Starting Cohort 6 "Adults" (SC6) starts with a representative sample of adults born between 1944 and 1986. Some of the participants come from the IAB study "ALWA - Working and Learning in a Changing World".

Four of the six starting cohorts start in 2010. Starting cohort 2 "Kindergarten" (SC2) includes 3,000 children and their parents. Starting cohort 3 "Grade 5" accompanies around 6,100 students from the beginning of lower secondary school. Around 16,400 students make up starting cohort 4 "Grade 9". Starting cohort 5 "First-Year Students" accompanies 17,900 first-year students.

The publication series "NEPS Working Papers" starts (since 2017 it is continued as LIfBi Working Papers). Here, articles, expert reports and results are published that relate to NEPS data.

An important milestone is reached at the end of 2011 with the publication of the first Scientific Use File for the adult cohort (SC6). Researchers can now work with data from 13,500 individuals. In addition, the cohort will be refreshed by 5,200 respondents in 2011.

Starting Cohort 1 "Newborns" (SC1) with 3,400 approximately seven-month-old infants and their parents starts. SC1 is the first longitudinal study in Germany that is representative of infancy and focuses on early childhood education and development.

Starting Cohorts complete

The NEPS now has 60,000 participants and 40,000 people from their personal environment.

The first funding phase of the DFG Priority Program 1646 begins (until 2014). The program bundles 17 research projects that deal with the study of competence development over the life course, the use of NEPS data for analyses or with NEPS-relevant methodological issues.

In December 2013, the funding of the NEPS as a third-party funded project by the BMBF ended. After the founding of the institute with Professor Hans-Günther Roßbach as director, LIfBi became a member of the Leibniz Association at the beginning of 2014 and became an affiliated institute of the Otto Friedrich University Bamberg.

In January 2014, the project BildungsLandschaft Oberfranken (BiLO) was launched. For the first time, it examines individual educational decisions over the course of a person's life in interaction with the educational offerings (perceived as available) and in connection with the social space, which is taken into account at both the micro and macro levels.

Additional study to the SC5

With the Panel of Teacher Education Students (LAP) an additional study to the National Educational Panel Study has been launched for starting cohort 5 "Students" of the National Educational Panel Study, which focuses in particular on (prospective) teachers.

The NEPS data trove is becoming richer and richer over the years. In 2015, scientific-use files for all six starting cohorts are available to the scientific community for the first time. Already 1,000 scientists worldwide are now conducting research with NEPS data.

1,000 scientists worldwide are now conducting research with NEPS data.

From 2015 to 2017, a second funding phase of the DFG Priority Programme 1646 with 16 research projects is approved.

In 2016, LIfBi will be included in the group of authors for the National Report on Education - findings from the NEPS will thus flow into the national education reporting and thus serve political decision-makers in shaping German education policy.

ReGES (Refugees in the German Educational System) examines the conditions under which the integration of refugees into our educational system can succeed.

Inclusion Project INSIDE starts

Since December 2016 the project Inclusion in and after lower secondary tier in Germany (INSIDE) has been looking at the framework conditions and implementation of inclusion at general schools in Germany.

The first NEPS Conference brings together international researchers from different disciplines to exchange information about ongoing projects and current findings in educational science.

The Research Data Center FDZ-LIfBi offers training on data use and data workshops several times a year - 2017 already counts the 50th training on NEPS data use at LIfBi.

LIfBiLectures Series starts

The LIfBiLectures series starts with a lecture by Prof. Dr. Clemens Kroneberg, University of Cologne.

The NEPSforum is established, an openly accessible knowledge archive for the dialog around NEPS data. Such a knowledge archive is so far unique in the field of German research data infrastructure.

Scientific-Use Files

Data from 50 survey waves have now been published as scientific-use files.

Third funding phase DFG Priority Programme 1646

In 2018, the third funding phase of the DFG Priority Programme 1646 starts with 16 research projects (until 2019).

LIfBi is assessed for the first time by the evaluation procedure of the Leibniz Association. In its statement on the first evaluation, the Senate then praises the NEPS as »a research infrastructure that is also unique in the international context«.

More than 2,000 scientists worldwide conduct research with NEPS data.

Introduction of the LIfBi Research Affiliates

27 scientists receive the honorary status of LIfBi Research Affiliates for the first time.

In May and June 2020, NEPS conducts supplementary surveys (NEPS-C) in all starting cohorts, in which participants will be asked about the direct effects of the Corona pandemic on everyday school, work, and family life. In an accelerated procedure, the data will already be processed in the current year 2020 for first analyses, which will be published in the new transfer series »NEPS Corona & Bildung«.

NEPS celebrates its 10th anniversary in the Corona year. To mark the occasion, a magazine (PDF) with reviews of the past decade is published for participants and a film is produced.

In order to be able to access sensitive NEPS data in accordance with data protection regulations, LIfBi has been offering a convenient "Remote Desktop" solution for several years. In the Corona year, an extension now makes it possible to register for data access by typing biometrics even without being personally present at the institute.

At the beginning of the year, the new series "LIfBi Forschung kompakt" is launched. Similar to the series "NEPS Corona & Bildung", the transfer reports present analyses with high social relevance in a compact and generally understandable way. They are thus aimed in particular at journalism, education policy, education administration and education practice.  

The two large scale projects ReGES and INSIDE are each concluded with conferences that also involve transfer target groups from politics and practice. The same year sees the launch of two new studies, Educational Trajectories of Refugee Children and Adolescents and INSIDE 2, in which participants can be accompanied further along their educational path, as well as the long-term study DataLiteracy, which measures the digital and data-related skills of the German population.

More than 3,000 researchers worldwide have now registered to work with NEPS data.

New NEPS-Study starts

In the fall of 2022, the new study "Education for Tomorrow's World" (SC8) starts with 20,000 students in fifth grade.

In March 2023, the call for proposals for research projects in the new infrastructure priority program "New Data Spaces for the Social Sciences" starts.

At the beginning of the year, the third transfer report series at LIfBi starts with "NEPS Forschung kompakt". In this series, analyses of the National Education Panel with high social relevance are presented in a compact and generally understandable way. They are thus aimed in particular at journalism, educational policy, administration and practice. 

The BMBF-funded project aims to promote the digital sovereignty of teachers of languages, social sciences and economics. LIfBi is particularly involved in the monitoring, evaluation and transfer of these approaches.

After almost a decade and three project phases, the Lehr­amts­studieren­den-Panel (LAP) ends with a final conference. This provides researchers with a unique collection of data on the careers and situation of young teachers in Germany.. 

In October 2023, the LIfBi was awarded the Total E-Quality award for its human resources and organizational policy, which is consistently aimed at equal opportunities.

The new series "Fact Sheets on Data Protection in Social Science Surveys" offers researchers comprehensive assistance with questions on data protection and is intended to help them better understand, comply with and implement the regulations and requirements in this field.

LIfBi is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a festive event and an anniversary magazine.