About the IWM

Two folders with the IWM symbol

The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM), located in Tübingen, is an independent research institute. Its responsible body is the foundation "Medien in der Bildung" [Media in Education], a nonprofit organization under private law. The institute was founded in 2001.

As a member of the Leibniz-Association, the IWM is supported equally by the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal States under their joint program "Promotion of Non-University Scientific Research" (Art. 91 b GG). The IWM is one of the 96 research institutions of the Leibniz Association.

What does the IWM research?

The Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) researches how digital technologies facilitate the creation, acquisition, sharing and dissemination of knowledge, thus making them knowledge media (“Wissensmedien”). The IWM focuses its attention on technologies’ impact on human knowledge processes and asks, for example, how digital technologies can support educational processes.

What skills will people need in the future to meet the challenges of digitalisation? And to what extent is interaction with technology changing not only thinking, but also human relationships and communication? The IWM seeks to answer these and other questions around the digital transformation.

In the spirit of the Leibniz Association, the IWM is committed to basic research with practical relevance. Research is divided into the areas Individual Use of Knowledge Media and Social Use of Knowledge Media. In 2023, the area Research-Based Transfer for the Use of Digital Media in Teaching was also added, which was previously based in the institute’s service division with the e-teaching.org portal.

The future of education and AI

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) is influencing almost all areas of research at the IWM. Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT offer enormous potential for educational practice, but also major challenges. We were studying LLMs at the institute even before ChatGPT became widely established.

Our research at the IWM focuses in particular on the potentially beneficial and detrimental effects of AI on knowledge processes. The aim is to make responsible, precisely targeted use of the opportunities opened up by AI, for example to support learning, understanding and communication, but also to acknowledge and better understand its risks. The Future Innovation Space (FIS) at the IWM also contributes to the development of innovative teaching and learning scenarios. It was opened in November 2023 and serves as an experimental, testing and meeting space for teaching students and lecturers.

In the Future Innovation Space at the IWM, student teachers and teaching staff come into contact with pioneering innovations for the future of digital education and can exchange ideas with experts from science.

More information about the Future Innovation Space
The IWM building from the outside
Four IWM employees sitting together and talking
A person operating a tablet during the Science Day at the IWM
A person using a tablet with Pepper, the IWM robot, in the background
Three IWM employees sitting together and talking
Three IWM employees working in front of the Future Innovation Space
Two IWM employees working

Leibniz - a strong community

As a member of the Leibniz Association, the IWM has numerous strong cooperation partners throughout Germany. Research alliances and networks represent a cooperation structure within the Leibniz Association. The IWM cooperates with other partners in the following networks:

The IWM is also involved in the newer ‘Leibniz Labs’ format. As well as being part of the ‘Pandemic Preparedness’ and ‘Systemic Sustainability’ labs, the IWM cooperates directly with numerous individual Leibniz institutes at the project level.

Annual reports (in German)

Annual reports for download

Annual Report 2023

Annual Report 2022

Annual Report 2021

History of the IWM