"The joint committees of all institutes of the Leibniz Association are an important instrument for the transfer of knowledge and experience. We are very pleased that LIfBi is so strongly represented here and that colleagues are committed to cooperation within the community! I would like to thank them for their commitment," says Dr. Stefan Echinger, new Director of Administration at the Bamberg Institute since June 2021.

AK Finance is a working group established by the administrative committee of the Leibniz Association, which is staffed by administrative directors and colleagues from the operational level from the financial area of the Leibniz institutions. Its members exchange views on financially relevant topics and formulate substantive positions. They support the presidium, the administrative committee and the administrative office in finance-related decisions and issues. Thomas Saueracker, who has now been elected to the team of spokespersons, had been acting head of LIfBi's administration for about a year until Stefan Echer took office. During this time, he was also intensively involved in the Leibniz Association - among other things, in the founding of the Competence Center Procurement, of which he is the deputy chairman of the advisory board.

The Working Group on Legal and Human Resources serves to exchange experience among Leibniz institutions on legal and human resources matters and advises the Leibniz Association's Executive Board in this regard. In addition, the working group serves to network with colleagues from other scientific organizations. Important topics of the past months, which Helene Gress as representative of LIfBi and her colleagues from other Leibniz institutes dealt with, were among others the effects of the Corona pandemic as well as the topic of fixed-term contracts with regard to scientific positions.