Societal impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

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The fear of infection and the behavioral changes necessary to contain the infection place a heavy burden on many people. Researchers are investigating how the pandemic will affect our mental and physical health.

Coping strategies for Covid-19: Social impacts

The project investigates the consequences of the lockdown on individual moral attitudes and behavioural patterns, with special attention to families with children. Within the framework of the study, a quantitative survey will be carried out, paying particular attention to the following areas: employment and working conditions, the organisation of daily activities and mobility, as well as interactions in the household and work-life balance.
In addition, the media discourse with regard to the burden on families will be examined, based on Twitter data and articles in regional and national newspapers.

Contact:   Dr. Irina Gewinner

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)
  • City of Hanover
  • University of Luxembourg

Lessons from the crisis - experiences of MINT teachers with teaching-learning platforms

Due to the measures taken against the spread of corona, teachers are faced with the challenge of organising their lessons from home. Various digital tools and learning platforms have thus become the means of choice. 
Many teachers currently use the learning platforms more intensively than before. In this project we will investigate which potentials teachers appreciate in the teaching-learning platforms and which obstacles make teaching difficult for them. On this basis, possible support measures will be derived. 

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Sascha Schanze

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

more information: Website of the project on Researchgate

Adolescence in times of a pandemic - An international comparative qualitative study

In a cultural comparative approach to socialization, we examine how adolescents experience the corona crisis and how they deal with it.  
This is a cooperation project between the Universities of Hanover (Boris Zizek) and Bielefeld (Ullrich Bauer). It is supported in the survey and, in the long term, in the evaluation by international colleagues.

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)
  • University Bielefeld

more information: Website of the project

The Causal Effect of Information about COVID-19 on Consumers’ Expectations, Sentiment and Concerns

The project evaluates the causal effect of information treatments about COVID-19 in a new survey on households in Thailand and Vietnam. Vietnam and Thailand were chosen, because they are both emerging economies from the same region, but other population surveys indicated very different beliefs about how the respective government is handling the COVID-19 crisis. 
We randomly split up our samples for each country and apply four different information treatments in addition to a control group. First, a map presenting the share of people in a country stating that they perceive the government’s reaction as insufficient and some text. This treatment is very different for Thailand and Vietnam, as Thailand is at the very top of countries reporting the worst assessment of their government, while Vietnam is the country with the highest agreement with its government policies. In the second treatment, respondents receive information based on a global survey on how people judge the public's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, the treatment effect is similar for both Thailand and Vietnam. Third, respondents receive information on the International Labour Organization’s devastating forecasts about the effects of COVID-19 on worldwide employment. Fourth, respondents are shown a graph and some text illustrating the effectiveness of social distancing for avoiding COVID-19 infections.
Among the four treatments, the ILO treatment tends to have the largest effect. In addition, treatment effects tend to be larger in the Thai survey compared to the Vietnamese data. Our survey also reveals a large degree of disagreement with the government’s policy reaction to COVID-19, which is not present in the Vietnamese data. Therefore, larger treatment effects of additional information provided by our survey might reflect this disagreement. Overall, we find no effects on consumers’ inflation and unemployment expectations, but Vietnamese consumers report more pessimistic GDP growth expectations when treated with information about high globally forecasted unemployment. This is also reflected in a lower likelihood to view government policies as appropriate in this treatment. However, we find no evidence of treatment effects on consumption or consumer sentiment. Consumers in both Thailand and Vietnam in addition report higher life satisfaction when they are treated with information of the public’s reaction to COVID-19, which places both countries in the middle relative to China and India, the two largest countries in Asia.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Lena Dräger

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)
  • Philipps University Marburg

#LernenVernetzt - A teaching research project

The COVID-19-related school closures meant that some of the teacher trainees currently enrolled at LUH were unable to complete their internships in the schools. The Leibniz School Connect (LSConnect) project team developed the initiative #LernenVernetzt based on the idea of providing student teachers with meaningful and competence-promoting replacements for their school internships in a timely manner and at the same time supporting schools, teachers and students. Committed students can support teachers in digitizing their teaching and learning materials and their students in the associated learning processes. The project investigates the design of digital teaching offerings, the use and perception of these offerings by students and the support of the learning processes by students.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Katharina Müller

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

more information: Website of the LUH

The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on emerging economies

When collecting panel data for 2020, the DFG long-term project "Thailand-Vietnam Socioeconomic Panel" (TVSEP) takes the COVID 19 pandemic into account. Based on the unique, long-term and high-quality TVSEP panel database consisting of 4400 rural households and about 1000 migrants in urban areas in Thailand and Vietnam, a survey specifically targeted at the corona pandemic will be conducted in November 2020. The Corona project is focused on answering the question of how the COVID 19 pandemic will affect the well-being and various behavioral traits of vulnerable individuals, households and communities in the two emerging markets of Thailand and Vietnam. The collection and analysis of this additional data will allow a precise assessment of the impact of the pandemic and provide important insights into the measures taken during the crisis. It can also be used to develop recommendations for future action to deal with such a crisis.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Hermann Waibel

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

more information: Website of the LUH

»Give a Breath-Challenge«: Non-invasive ventilators for COVID-19 patients

In the "Give a Breath-Challenge" ideas competition, Munich Re and Fraunhofer were looking for concepts for ventilators and accessories from March 2020. In the category for ventilators, two winners shared the award - one of them is the SmartCPAP team: Fraunhofer IAPT and ITEM together with AC Aircontrols GmbH. The team developed a non-invasive ventilator that can be manufactured cheaply anywhere and used in a wide variety of circumstances. The device is specially tailored to COVID-19 patients through a number of special features. For example, it supports the spontaneous inhalation and exhalation of patients in a very flexible way and thus helps to ensure that they can be cared for as long as possible without intubation. This leaves intensive care beds free for even more severe cases. The SmartCPAP can work with oxygen from different sources and also has features that save oxygen. A concept for the pilot use of the developed devices has already been developed for a collaboration with Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

Contact:   Dr. Gerhard Pohlmann

Partners:

  • AC Aircontrols GmbH
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Additive Manufacturing Technologies (IAPT)
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine (ITEM)
  • Munich RE

more information: Website of the Fraunhofer ITEM

European Virus Archive GLOBAL

The EU-funded EVA-GLOBAL project gathers 43 laboratories associated with key Non-Governmental Organizations including WHO and OIE. EVA-GLOBAL network is reinforced by 12 Associate Partners and 5 Associate international networks. This unique advanced international community (12 EU and 17 non-EU) aims at becoming the most responsive network to improve the control of emerging or re-emerging virus outbreaks at the global level. The past EVAg, has already been able to play a key role for the control of major virus outbreaks such as MERS, Chik, Zika, Ebola, Dengue, COVID-19 viruses, by the supply of unique reagents for the detection of viruses in infected patients. Through the new institutes joining the consortium, EVA-G will become the largest virtual virus collection for human, animal and plant viruses.

Contact:   Dr. Amber H. Scholz

Partners:

  • Leibniz Institute DSMZ - German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures GmbH
  • all 34 partners are listed on the website of the EU

Funding: 637.328,75 € from the  European Union (EU)

more information: Website of the EU

Digital Contact Tracing, Privacy, and Discrimination: On the Ethics of Fighting Corona

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, measures such as contact restrictions and curfews, assembly bans and digital contact tracing were considered or implemented that would normally be unthinkable in liberal democracies. The aim of this project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, is to explore what an ethically justified pandemic response looks like. In doing so, we pay particular attention to different possibilities of digital contact tracing and how their contribution to pandemic containment should be balanced against possible violations of data protection.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Mathias Frisch

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

Funding: 120.000 € from the Volkswagen Foundation

Empowering Digital Teachers in a changing world (EDGE)

In this project, the current situation of increased digital learning is taken up and corresponding qualification offers for teachers are developed. The project is co-financed by the European Union (ERASMUS+).

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Moritz Börnert-Ringleb

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

Funding: 103.425 € from the European Union

Mobility in the crisis - Project to research the changed mobility behaviour in the Greater Hannover Area during the Corona Pandemic

The Corona pandemic has fundamentally changed the everyday life of many people. In this research project, the change in mobility behaviour in the greater Hanover region during the Corona pandemic is investigated. For this topic, a survey with more than 4,000 participants was conducted in the Hannover Region in June 2020 as part of a study project of the Institute for Economic and Cultural Geography, which, among other things, provides information about the substitution of public transport by cycling or car use in the context of sustainable mobility behaviour. Furthermore, the reduction of mobility and the affectedness of different social groups during the pandemic will be investigated. The results support our thesis that certain population groups are more affected than others and show that immobility during the crisis can be both a constraint and a privilege and therefore cannot be evaluated per se. In addition, it becomes clear that especially high-income respondents living in the city of Hannover are now using the car more, while car use in the rest of the Hannover Region has tended to decrease due to the possibility of working in a home office.

Contact:   Dr. Kerstin Schäfer

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

more information: Twitter channel of the project

Scientific Experts and the Pressures of Pandemic Policy Advice

This project, funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and run jointly with researchers from TU Berlin and the University of Cambridge, uses the Corona pandemic as a central case study to analyse how scientific expertise and trust can be generated under conditions of deep uncertainty and urgency. The project aims to develop a set of principles for science-based public debate and policy advice. By pooling resources from philosophy of public health, philosophy of science and social epistemology, the project contributes to a critically informed public understanding of the interface between science, the public and policy.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Mathias Frisch

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

Funding: 120.000 € from the Volkswagen Foundation

Special Education Support for Learning Difficulties and Behavioural Problems through Digital Learning (SOLVE)

Within the framework of the project, possibilities of special education support in the context of digital learning with learning difficulties and behavioural problems are being researched. The project is carried out in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Gino Casale (Bergische Universität Wuppertal) and Prof. Dr. Clemens Hillenbrand (University of Oldenburg).

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Moritz Börnert-Ringleb

Partners:

  • Bergische Universität Wuppertal
  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)
  • University of Oldenburg

Study individualisation through digital, data-based assistants (SIDDATA)

The project aims to investigate whether and how students can be efficiently and effectively supported in achieving individual educational goals by bringing together previously unrelated data and information in an individual digital study assistant. It implements and evaluates such an assistant as a model at three universities. Students are to be encouraged to define and consistently pursue their own educational goals and to be supported in this by a data-based environment. The digital assistant to be developed should be able to provide situation-appropriate hints, reminders and recommendations and enable comparisons with individual, factual and social reference norms and other benchmarks. To this end, the application should combine several levels of analysis in which different factors have an influence on the efficiency and effectiveness of study.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Michael Breitner Prof. Dr. Johann-Mathias Graf von der Schulenburg

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

Funding: 827.903 € from the federal ministry of education and research

Will the world never be the same? Letters from a post-corona future

The Corona crisis has changed the lives of people worldwide. Daily routines and routines have been disrupted or significantly restricted. This makes it clear that our daily lives and habits are not rigid, but can be changed. Which in turn raises the question of how we want to live - after Corona. Do we want to go back to the past and live the way we did before Corona, or do we want a new, a different way of living for the future? If we had the opportunity to create a new future, how would we create it? In order to be able to give answers to this question, young people aged 16 and over were asked to write letters from the future to their present selves.

Contact:   Prof. Dr. Boris Zizek

Partners:

  • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (LUH)

COH-FIT - Collaborative Outcomes Study on Health and Functioning during Infection Times

Learn more about this project from Hannover Medical School here.

PallPan - National Strategy for Palliative Care during a Pandemic

Learn more about this project from Hannover Medical School here.

OnCoVID - Management in oncology during the COVID-19 pandemic

Learn more about this project from Hannover Medical School here.

The COVID-19 survey Germany: Mental health in times of crisis

Learn more about this project from Hannover Medical School here.