How can knowledge transfer and education meet the challenges of rapid technological and demographic change?

This is the focus of “EduTrack: Tracking Education Pathways and Social Policies,” a five-year, interdisciplinary collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR), the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), and the Max Planck Institute for Political and Social Science (MPIPS, until March 2026 as Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity) that launched in April 2026.

Experts from demography, history, computer science and political science will collaborate to produce fresh insights on digital education, the globalisation of knowledge, as well as the impact of education on social mobility, crisis resilience, and democracy. The four partners in EduTrack will create new insights as starting points for the transformation of learning, research institutions, and working lives.

The six-year research project is funded by the Max Planck Society and led by Population Europe, a Europe-wide science-for-policy network, ensuring policy impact of the research.

Exploring Human Migration, Social Mobility, and Digital Access

Societies create scientific and technological knowledge, but how do they share and reshape it across different eras and regions? As part of EduTrack researchers in the MPIWG’s Department “Artifacts, Action, Knowledge” will examine how human migration, social mobility, and digital access reshape knowledge exchange between Asia and Europe. Anchored in historical perspectives, the project will examine the implications of contemporary developments—from grassroots knowledge-sharing practices to national digitization strategies. The research will situate the recent past in a longer historical arc and thereby generate fresh comparative insights that can strengthen collaboration in higher education and academic research. The team is led by Lisa Onaga and Shih-Pei Chen, under the directorship of Dagmar Schäfer.

Population Europe: Creating Dialog between Researchers and Policymakers

Alongside the research, a “Policy Lab” will create dialogue between researchers and policymakers. This Policy Lab consists of public dialogue events throughout the EduTrack project. It is run by Population Europe—the network of Europe’s leading demographic research centres. The network provides an international knowledge pool of policy-relevant research. 41 partner institutes and more than 250 experts engage in advice on topics such as education, social cohesion, health, resilience, and competitiveness.

Next Steps for EduTrack

As of early 2026, the teams have started setting up their research projects. Public events to engage policymakers with research will commence in early 2027.