New GIGA Annual Report

Last year was an unusual year for us: we were kept busy with our evaluation, which is carried out by the Leibniz Association for each of its member institutes regularly every seven years. As those who have been subject to such procedures (including the REF in the United Kingdom) know all too well, these exercises tend to be labour-intensive and time-consuming. Team GIGA rose to the occasion. With camaraderie and cheer, we blazed on at full steam. As we prepared for the evaluation together, we seized the opportunity to reflect on our trajectory since the last seven years. My colleagues and I were delighted to note that we had not only met, but sometimes even surpassed the goals that we had set ourselves.

We are proud of what we have achieved. For example, we acquired a record high of third-party funding, more than doubled the impact factor for our journal publications, significantly increased the number of books we published with prestigious international publishing houses, banked a manifold increase in prizes won, deepened and widened our cooperation with international organisations and policy-makers, and also expanded our national and international outreach via our media presence and events.

This Annual Report offers you some illustrations of how the Institute has evolved in this evaluation cycle. And it provides you, of course, with an overview of our many activities and highlights in 2021. We hope you will enjoy reading about some of our successes as much as we enjoyed working towards them!

Amrita Narlikar (GIGA President)