The Institute for Legal Informatics (IRI) is part of LUH’s School of Law and was established in 1983. At that time, it was the first institute dedicated to scientific research on all issues of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) at a German University. With currently more than 40 staff members, IRI is one of Europe’s largest institutions in this field and is actively involved in about 10 European research projects with a focus on data protection, data security and intellectual property rights.

The research will be carried out at the IRI, Faculty of Law, Hannover. The research and teaching focus is on European and national data protection law, as well as intellectual property and competition law with emphasis on IT-related aspects. LUH offers students and researchers a reference library (The German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB)), access to international and national research databases, publication possibilities as well as doctorate and student programs including training on research skills and academic writing. Furthermore, the IRI offers a postgraduate training programme in the field of information and communication technology which leads to the academic degree „Master of Laws“ (LL.M.) in which also doctoral students may participate. The IRI is also part of the research group L3S which provides services to students and researchers and has access to LUH – L3S’s facilities. Finally, due to informal contacts both with the Hamburg and the Munich Max Planck Institutes for private Law and intellectual property respectively, it should be possible to gain access to their respective libraries for research.