The Research Institute for Transformation, Housing, and Social Spatial Development (TRAWOS)
was founded in 2004 as an institute of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences. Since 2015,
it has had an average of around 10 members and 10 third-party funded employees.
Its organizational structure comprises the management (director and deputy director), the institute council,
the general meeting, and an administrative office (see p. 15f.).
The main objectives of TRAWOS are (a) to develop and disseminate social
scientific findings, particularly on structural change processes in rural
regions and their consequences, (b) to combine research, teaching and creative practice,
consulting and knowledge transfer, and (c) to create and promote public discourse
forums (especially in the region).
The institute's central themes and fields of research are: (1) Innovative regional development
in Upper Lusatia with a focus on demography, migration, integration,
gender, and governance, (2) Urbanity in medium-sized towns and new concepts of rurality in
peripheral areas, (3) Social-ecological transformation and its management, (4) Social,
political, and civil society inclusion and participation, (4) European and regional
integration problems in the border triangle.