Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Informationsdienst Wissenschaft e.V. or idw (The Science Information Service) operates an Internet platform, which bundles the press reports and dates of important events from about 1,000 scientific institutions, including universities, technical colleges, governmental and non-governmental research institutes and institutes to support research or scientific administration. idw (a registered charitable society) also operates an expert broker, the idw expert finder, which is exclusively for journalists. This makes idw one of the most comprehensive sources of science news in the German-speaking area. Foreign journalists and institutions (mostly European) use idw as well. The two main objectives of idw are: To provide the public with a comprehensive picture of science in the German-speaking area. To create a close network between the linked (research) institutions. Services The information in idw can be accessed free of charge - either directly on idw’s www pages, or by using an individually configurable RSS feed or as an e-mail subscriber. Any user can request the information covering the topics and regions which interest him. All idw services can be used free of cost - the current news ticker, the news app, the science calendar, research in the archive (which contains more than 450,000 press releases), and the list of institutions linked to idw. idw also provides journalists with instruments for contacting experts, and maintains a database with science photos. The members' press offices have various possibilities of communicating with journalists. Membership is only offered to German or foreign institutions which perform research or teaching, or which support science or are active in science in some other way. In November 2022, idw opened a Mastodon instance, wisskomm.social, named after science communication (Wissenschaftskommunikation).