Growing up in Germany – Research for Policy

25 Mar 2026

In this talk Professor Susanne Kuger provided an overview of the Deutsches Jugendinstitut's diverse research projects on children, families and young people and their publicly available treasury of datasets.  

The DJI (Deutsches Jugendinstitut) in Munich is one of Europe's largest social science research institutes. Founded in 1963, it focuses on studying the lives of children, youth, and families. The institute conducts research, advises policymakers at federal, state, and local levels, and provides insights for practitioners in the field. Located in Munich with a branch office in Halle/Saale, the DJI employs around 420 staff members as of 2024.

The event was hosted by the ISS21 Children & Young People Research Cluster and UCC Futures - Collective Social Futures. Professor Deirdre Horgan (Cluster Convenor) chaired the event.

Organisers: Annette Loy and Professor Eleanor Bantry White (School of Applied Social Studies) and Professor Dirk Pesch (Computer Science).

Bio

Prof. Dr. Susanne Kuger studied psychology at Julius-Maximilians-University Würzburg (Diploma, 2004). She worked at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg (2005–2011) in the BIKS research group on learning contexts, where she also completed her PhD in empirical educational research. From 2012 to 2018 she worked at the DIPF Leibniz Institute, contributing among other projects to PISA 2015. She obtained her habilitation in 2017 at Bamberg. Since 2018 she has led the Department of Social Monitoring and Methodology at the German Youth Institute (DJI) and became Research Director in 2023. Since 2022 she has also held a professorship at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich.