IMPRS LIFE

International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course

LIFE is an International Max Planck Research School, a graduate program sponsored by the Max Planck Society. Human development across the lifespan is its research topic. The general approach is aimed at advancing the behavioral and social science of human development. LIFE takes an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to understanding human development in a changing world, connecting evolutionary, ontogenetic, historical, and institutional perspectives. The focus is on the evolution and interaction of individual and institutional development.

The goal of LIFE is advanced research training in the study of human behavior and institutional systems over evolutionary and ontogenetic time. LIFE takes an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to understanding human development in a changing world and connects evolutionary, ontogenetic, and institutional perspectives.

The institutions involved in LIFE are: the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, the Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, and the University of Zurich. The target group of the Research School are post-diploma or post-master's graduate students who intend to pursue a doctorate in one of the relevant disciplines (biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, educational science). As a collaborative Research School, LIFE offers students unique training in the dynamics of human behavior on different time scales and includes opportunities for research abroad at one of the cooperating institutions. The training program involves seminars, workshops, a series of twice yearly academies at the four sites, and collaborative supervision of research training.

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