ZUSE has been running since February 2021. The project has now officially started with a two-day workshop. The project partners primarily used the first day of the digital event to discuss conceptual issues and their further implementation in empirical research. For this purpose, we also invited the internationally renowned researcher Catarina Kinnvall (Universität Lund) for an exchange on the concept of "ontological security", which is of central importance to the project.
The second day focused on the formal kick-off together with our funding insitution DLR (German Aerospace Center) as well as our practice partners: the Joint Representation of the States of Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein at the European Union, the Federal Agency for Civic Education and the Europa-Union Deutschland e.V. The participants discussed the current state of the project as well as further plans for the upcoming three years. The practice partners expressed their keen interest in ZUSE's objectives and goals. The group finally illustrated the practical relevance of the project based on a debate about current developments regarding the EU's strategy to establish a "Security Union".