Organizational Resilience in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Crisis Coping and Strategic Adaptation of Food Service Companies in Cities in Lower Saxony

This research project investigates the coping measures and strategic adaptations of companies during the COVID-19 crisis. The empirical analysis focuses on catering firms in cities in Lower Saxony. The structural change in the restaurant industry and the closures of restaurants do not only affect the respective businesses, but also the cities in which they have or had their locations. The project will not only make an important and innovative contribution to scientific debates, but will also contribute to a better understanding of current economic developments that are of great political and public interest.

Funding: Pro*Niedersachsen - Research Projects in the Humanities, Cultural and Social Sciences
Duration: Oct. 2022 - Sept. 2025
Project Management: Prof. Dr. Martin Franz, Dr. Thomas Neise, Dr. Philip Verführt
Contact Person: Philip Völlers

Socio-economic evaluation within the Hotspot Project 23 "Diversity in Geest and Moor - Landscape through the ages“

The aim of Hotspot Project 23 is to secure and expand the existing, richly structured and valuable habitats in the districts of Emsland, Cloppenburg, Oldenburg and Vechta by means of nature conservation measures and thus to strengthen the biodiversity present there. The nature conservation measures are accompanied by intensive public relations work in order to increase the appreciation of biological diversity as well as the acceptance of measures for its protection and promotion among the population. Socio-economic evaluation will be used to monitor the impact of the publicity measures. The evaluation will be carried out before the start of the measures, during the implementation phase and towards the end of the project.

Funding: Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
Duration: July 2022 - June 2027
Project Management: Dr. Philip Verführt

Value Chains and Consumer Decisions – Remote Effects of Governance and Product Biographies Using Cocoa as an Example

The project CoVaCoa named "Value Chains and Consumer Decisions – Remote Effects of Governance and Product Biographies Using Cocoa as an Example" is a project with focus on Ghana. In it, an interdisciplinary team from four different institutes of Osnabrück University is looking at the causal relationships of global value chains and the governance of sustainable production on the one hand, and sustainable consumption on the other. Many of today's sustainability challenges are negative externalities of economic activity, where the natural environment has the character of a collective good and negative ecological and social consequences of economic activity have no monetary price for the causers. Therefore, economic incentives must be created for companies to produce sustainably. This is where CoVaCoa comes in, in order to contribute to a sustainable development of the cocoa sector.

Funding: The German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU)
Duration: Aug. 2020 - Jan. 2024
Project Management: Prof. Dr. Martin Franz
Contact Person: Jana Rülke

Digital Business Models - Changes in Value Chains and Labour in the Logistics Sector

The project addresses the question of how digitalization affects value chains and labor in logistics. In particular, the increasing proliferation of digital platforms is expected to lead to profound changes for the sector and the players involved. However, empirical findings have been lacking to date. This is the starting point of the project, which not only contributes to the debate on the platform economy from an economic geography perspective, but also identifies feasible options for trade unions, works councils and policy makers.

Funding: Hans Böckler Foundation
Duration: Mar. 2020 - Feb. 2024
Project Management: Prof. Dr. Martin Franz
Contact Persons: Veronique Helwing Dr. Philip Verfürth

Resource Conservation through Logistics Plus – Logist.Plus

The goal of Logist.Plus is to create sustainable logistics that use land sparingly and conserve soils. We combine a governance perspective with a business perspective to enable land saving through coordinated and cooperative land use options, ecological optimization of site selection, and synergetic logistics processes through cooperation in regional networks. As a project with eight partners from science, local authorities and associations, we take a broad understanding of logistics as a basis, which also includes, for example, the logistics of the manufacturing industry, which is why we strive for intensive cooperation with companies in order to develop sustainable business models.

Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research, joint project of the funding line Stadt.Land.Plus
Duration: Feb. 2020 – Jan. 2023
Project Management: Prof. Dr. Martin Franz
Contact Person: apl. Prof. Dr. Kim Philip Schumacher

Completed third-party funded Projects

Advanced Virtual Teaching Collaboration in Geography (VirtuGeo)
Funding: Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture
Duration: May 2022 - Dez. 2022

Direct Investments between Turkey and Germany - Locations, Impacts and Risks for Companies in and Investing from Lower-Saxony
Funding: Funding: Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture (Pro*Niedersachsen)
Duration: Oct. 2018 - Dec. 2022
Website

Digital Excursions (DigiEx)
Funding: Osnabrueck University
Duration: Mar. 2022 - Sep. 2022

Logistic-Specific Adapation-Concept (KlimaLogis) – A Pilot Project in the County of Osnabrück
Funding Organisation: Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety
Duration: Jan. 2019 - Feb. 2022
Website (German)

Grey goes Green - commercial areas in transition
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Duration: Jul. 2016 - Jan. 2022
Website (German)

Innovating Field Trips – IFIT
Funding: EU - Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership
Duration: Sep. 2018 - Dec. 2021
Website

Healthy Planet: Communication and cooperation for better biodiversity in the border region between Lower Saxony and the Netherlands using the example of wolf management
Funding: INTERREG-VA-Programm Deutschland - Niederlande
Duration: Feb. 2021 - Dec. 2021
Brochure (German)

Global Classroom - Joint-Classroom Pilot Project on Globalization
Funding: Osnabrück University
Duration: Oct. 20 – Sept. 2021

Regional competence center for energy self-sufficient urban redevelopment - scientific support
Funding: EU and state of North Rhine-Westphalia
Duration: Apr. 2016 - Mar. 2019

Business networks and business development in the EUREGIO
Funding: INTERREG Program Germany-Nederland
Duration: Jan. 2018 - Dec. 2018
Brochure (German)

(Re-)Migrants in the German-Turkish Innovation Network - Identification and Communication of Potentials of Science and Industry - MIDETI
Funding: Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Laufzeit: Dec. 2014 - Jun. 2016
Brochure (German)

Completed Dissertation Projects