The Data Champion Award 2026, endowed with €1,500, is awarded to researchers Dr. Anne Speer, Charlotte Brandhorst (both University of Bremen / Research Institute Social Cohesion), and Leonie Wolfrath (University of Mannheim). With this award, the interdisciplinary data competence center DataNord recognizes their data project on the RISC milieu typology, developed at the FGZ at the University of Bremen.
Making a tool accessible
The RISC milieu typology was developed as part of the research project “Milieu Conflicts Around Social Cohesion” at SOCIUM at the University of Bremen. It analyzes social groups, values, and lines of conflict.
The award recipients have refined and opened this tool for broader use. One of its key foundations is the German Social Cohesion Panel (SCP), whose data are provided through the FGZ Research Data Center in accordance with FAIR principles. In addition, they developed applications that extend access to the general public.
Re-measuring society
The analyses paint a nuanced picture of contemporary society.
“Society is not polarized into just two groups, but rather fragmented into multiple distinct groups. What matters is that we consider not only values but also socioeconomic positions—and that we make these relationships transparent and understandable through openly accessible data and methods,” explains Dr. Anne Speer.
The typology links socioeconomic living conditions with value orientations, highlighting how differently social groups are shaped and where conflicts emerge. At the same time, the open availability of data and methods allows these analyses to be replicated, validated, and extended in independent research.
Openness transforms research
This is the project’s central contribution: preparing and opening up the data. By providing replication and classification materials, the RISC milieu typology is freely accessible. Researchers can use the classification algorithm at no cost and consult the documentation to understand how the milieus are constructed.
“Other researchers can critically assess our approach and contribute to its further development,” explains Charlotte Brandhorst.
Where similar classifications have often been costly and non-transparent in the past, they are now openly available. This lowers barriers to access and strengthens scholarly exchange.
Access for a broad public
The transfer between research and society is another aspect that impressed the jury. Two interactive applications make the research immediately tangible, allowing users to locate their own position within society and explore differences between milieus.
Leonie Wolfrath, who worked on the project as a student assistant and is now pursuing her master’s degree in Mannheim, says: “We’ve already received a great deal of feedback from people on how accurately the descriptions of their own milieu reflect their lived reality.”
The applications are already being used in teaching and have generated strong public interest.
Relevance for science and society
The project demonstrates how data can deepen our understanding of the relationships between social conditions, values, and societal lines of conflict. It provides a solid foundation for analyzing social dynamics and strengthens transparency at a time of growing skepticism toward science.
Looking ahead, new formats such as a “milieu dialogue” are planned to foster exchange between different social groups.
Award and next steps
“We will use the prize money to fund participation in conferences, workshops, and summer schools,” the award winners explain.
The applications and data resources will continue to be developed and maintained for long-term availability. A key focus is on how social milieus evolve over time and what this means for social cohesion.
The project exemplifies how a FAIR approach to research data can have a concrete impact. Open data and methods make analyses of social milieus and societal lines of conflict transparent and reproducible, thereby strengthening trust in science. At the same time, researchers can directly use and further develop the milieu typology—as a foundation for both academic research and informed societal and policy debates.
Further information: The milieu calculator and the interactive milieu graphic are available online at: https://fgz-risc-data.de/interaktive-tools/milieu-rechner/#
What is the Data Champion Award?
The Data Champion Award is presented annually by DataNord. It recognizes outstanding achievements in the field of research data and exceptional commitment to a FAIR approach to data. The €1,500 prize supports expenses in data-intensive research, data science, and research data management. The award not only honors individual accomplishments but also encourages innovation in the handling of research data.
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