International Max Planck Research School on Learning, Institutions, and Future Evolution (LIFE)

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) on the Life Course (LIFE) has a long history at the Institute. It was founded in 2002 as a collaborative project between the MPIB and the University of Michigan and has had a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary and international training of graduate students ever since. Freie Universität Berlin (FU) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (HU) were involved as Berlin partner universities from the outset, and the University of Virginia and the University of Zurich joined early on as additional partners. Over the years, more than 300 doctoral fellows have successfully finished the program, including more than 130 in Berlin.

Co-Speakers: Ulman Lindenberger, MPI for Human Development; Clemens Tesch-Römer, German Centre of Gerontology (Associate Co-Speaker); Patricia A. Reuter-Lorenz, University of Michigan; Jacqui Smith, University of Michigan (Associate Co-Speaker); Angeline M. Lillard, University of Virginia; Cynthia Tong, University of Virginia (Associate Co-Speaker); Moritz Daum, University of Zurich; Alexandra M. Freund, University of Zurich (Associate Co-Speaker)
Program Manager: Imke Kruse, MPI for Human Development
Coordinators: Silke Schäfer, MPI for Human Development; Betty Agyei, University of Michigan; Karen Johnson, University of Virginia; Ines Florin, University of Zurich
Newsletter Editor: Julia A. M. Delius, MPI for Human Development

In 2024, the Berlin site successfully applied to the Max Planck Society for the permanent continuation of the IMPRS LIFE, intended to cover the entire research range of the Institute as the lead MPI. In order to take account of LIFE's new direction in terms of content, Technische Universität Berlin (TU) was invited to join LIFE as an additional partner on the Berlin side. The new iteration of LIFE is now called IMPRS for Learning, Institutions, and Future Evolution (LIFE). The successor school builds on the experience, networks, and achievements of the previous IMPRS and aims to continue its successful path. The target phenomenon will be the development of human behavior from infancy to old age in context, broadly defined as the physical, social, cultural dimensions of the environment. The aim is to understand how people develop in their environment, act on it, and are influenced by it. This includes the way we live, where we live, how we make decisions, how we interact with artificial intelligence, and how our lives are changing through our own development.

While the thematic range in LIFE is broad, its conceptual mission remains focused and unique: LIFE promotes an integrative and interdisciplinary approach to the study of human behavior that aims at identifying and understanding the mechanisms, institutions, and conditions that shape but also disrupt the way we think, learn, feel, and decide. Ultimately, this knowledge can contribute to enabling individuals and societies to change, and hopefully improve, the world we live in.

The LIFE mission unites a wide range of disciplines including applied mathematics, cognitive and behavioral developmental neuroscience, computational social science, computer science, economics, educational science, psychology, and sociology. The main educational objective of LIFE is to enrich the training of young researchers by exposure to an international and interdisciplinary context that actively promotes a developmental perspective. Transatlantic networking and communication are pivotal components of LIFE.

As part of LIFE, the next cohorts of doctoral students will investigate the following questions:

1. How do people make use of the cognitive tools in the mind's adaptive toolbox to make good decisions in a complex and changing world?
2. How do they succeed in acting and living in a self-determined way in interaction with artificial agents?
3. How can people of all ages and backgrounds realize their personal potential and what role does plasticity of the brain play in this?
4. Which environments support health, well-being, and cognitive performance, and how can people, individuals and collectives alike, contribute to their design?
5. Which methods do we need to develop in order to handle present and future data formats and research questions?

While strengthening the emphasis on computer science and environmental neuroscience, LIFE will retain the disciplinary breadth that is needed to complement the focus on the developing person with a more macroscopic perspective on developmental context. The LIFE faculty considers it important that educational science, economics, and sociology continue to be part of the LIFE portfolio, as these disciplines draw the fellows' attention to the institutions and cultural practices that structure the human life course.

The research activities of the graduate students who pursue their doctorates in the context of both the previous and the current IMPRS LIFE are anchored in specific disciplines. LIFE respects the traditions, standards, and methods of each discipline, and considers it critical that the doctoral work of the fellows is of outstanding quality when judged by disciplinary criteria. At the same time, experience has shown that it is crucial to expose the fellows to the major conceptual and methodological challenges in the study of behavioral development that transcend disciplinary boundaries and require transdisciplinary theorizing and interdisciplinary collaboration. In pushing fellows and faculty beyond the confines of their specialty areas, LIFE has proven extremely successful in creating a surplus of factual knowledge and scientific ambition that leads to the formation of future cohorts of developmental researchers who are well-equipped and eager to address the difficult questions in understanding human development.

Collaboration among the participating institutions has been close and extensive since the program's inception. The semiannual academies, in which fellows and faculty from the four LIFE sites participate, are the beating heart of the international LIFE program. About 40 fellows typically attend the academies, and most of them present their dissertation research either as a poster or in a talk, with ample time for discussion with faculty and co-fellows. In addition, roughly 35 faculty members from all sites and a few local alumni, as well as one or two guest speakers from other institutions, participate in each academy. Each time, the graduating alumni also join the group to celebrate their LIFE commencement. Each fellow participates in four academies. The LIFE exchanges, or research stays at a LIFE site abroad, are usually the other core element of international collaboration. Over the years, these exchanges have triggered an impressive number of collaborative research projects among fellows as well as fellows and faculty members from different sites and institutions.

LIFE fellows in Berlin participate in a program of weekly seminars each semester. Starting in 2026, the curriculum will cover the following four modules: 

1. Decision-making 
2. Artificial Agents 
3. Lifespan Development 
4. Environments/Context 

On a rotational basis, the topics are designed to give a broad overview of research and theory in the respective field, always with a particular emphasis on the role of the environment for human development. The seminars are usually held at the MPI for Human Development, taught throughout the academic year by a varying team of faculty from the now four Berlin institutions, and include invited lectures by external faculty.

Over the years, the school has been very successful and has received several outstanding evaluations. To date, there is basically no other IMPRS or other graduate school worldwide with a similarly institutionalized international structure. The thematic focus on the development of human behavior across the lifespan is also still unique, and the new perspective of taking a closer look at the environment even more so. Today, LIFE is internationally known as the graduate training program for lifespan development. This is reflected in the fact that the share of applications from abroad has constantly increased over time, reaching 82% in 2025. The quality of applicants has always been high, but seems to have increased further over time, reflecting the growing reputation of the program in the larger international scientific community. The intention is to build on and continue this success story. The recognizability of the LIFE "brand," also reflected in the use of the logo and color scheme (as "corporate design"), made it essential to carry on using the IMPRS LIFE name in the years to come. This will also ensure the sense of a continued common identity of the meanwhile enormous network of more than 300 LIFE alumni. At the same time, the logo was adapted to the standard for IMPRS suggested by the Max Planck Society to embed LIFE in the successful IMPRS format.