With the formation of the Berlin University Alliance, the four Alliance partners – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – want to develop the research hub of Berlin into an integrated research environment. In order to bring the five objectives and three cross-cutting themes to life, new staff members will support the new overarching work structure and joint projects.

Iver Ohm has been responsible for the Berlin Citizen Forums as a program manager in the area of research forums since March 1, 2021 (Objective 2: Fostering Knowledge Exchange). Previously, he taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Bern University of the Arts, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, and the University of Bremen. Since 2015, he has also been responsible for various projects at the interfaces between civil society, urban spaces, art, culture, politics, and science at the "Hidden Institute – Aktionsforschung für Zukunftsfähigkeit" (Action Research for Sustainability). Dr. Melanie Kryst also joined the Research Forums area as a parental leave replacement on June 4, 2021. The political scientist with a PhD previously worked at the HUMBOLDT-VIADRINA Governance Platform gGmbH, where she designed and implemented various formats for participation and the exchange of research and practice.

One focus of the partner institutions in the BUA is to disseminate scientific ideas and research results to the outside world and at the same time to incorporate external perspectives and experiences into research. This research forums program is designed to strengthen the multidirectional exchange of knowledge. To this end, processes and methods are being developed and tested to show how the topics and knowledge of various social stakeholders in Berlin can be combined and further developed in new transdisciplinary research partnerships.