Basic social science research is conducted at the WZB in selected problem areas under the general theme of "Developmental Trends, Problems of Adaptation, and Possibilities for Innovation in Modern Democratic Societies." The interlinkage of basic research and practical relevance is specifically expressed in the setting of the tasks of the research units, research groups, and research professorships. They embody the theoretical and conceptual perspectives of the various disciplines within the social sciences and, as a rule, are synthesised in research areas that describe interdisciplinary dimensions relating to a social problem area. WZB research is focused on issues that the decision-making community and society at large have a special interest in solving.
Nevertheless, this work looks beyond immediate needs. It is designed with a long-term perspective. Integrated into the wider contexts of scientific discussion and closely linked to scientific activity in the universities and other research institutions, WZB's research work contributes to dealing with practical problems as well as to further developing theory. It is characteristic of the largely empirical research work of the WZB, whose results are communicated to both scientific and policy-making communities, that in addition to its multidisciplinary approach it has an internationally comparative dimension. At first this centred almost exclusively on western industrialised (OECD) countries, but recently it has focused increasingly on the European Union and is extending more and more towards central and eastern European countries to analyse the transformation processes there.