Developing Explanations Together

Algorithmic approaches such as machine learning are becoming increasingly complex. This growing opacity makes it difficult to understand and accept the decisions proposed by artificial intelligence (AI). In the Collaborative Research Center/Transregio 318 “Constructing Explainability,” researchers are developing ways to actively involve users in the explanation process, thereby enabling co-constructive explanations. Since 2021, the interdisciplinary research team has been investigating the principles, mechanisms, and social practices of explanation and how these can be taken into account in the design of AI systems. The aim of the project is to provide users with relevant information in such a way that they can make informed decisions and participate actively and critically in a digital society.

Learn more

News

Photo: SFB 1646

Through workshops, hands-on activities, and a graffiti project, TRR 318, in collaboration with SFB 1646 at Bielefeld University, aims to engage with residents of Bielefeld-Sieker in a dialogue about language and artificial intelligence. The goal is not only to showcase research but, above all, to explore the experiences, questions, and perspectives of the people in the neighborhood.

Read more

TRR 318 will host the 4th conference “Scaffolding Social XAI” on March 16-17, 2027. Researchers from all disciplines are invited to submit their abstracts by November 1.

Read more
From left: Dr. Maximilian Muschalik, Dr. Helen Beierling, Dr. Amit Singh, Dr. Vivien Lohmer, Dr. Maximilian Spliethöver, Dr. Dimitry Mindlin

More doctoral candidates successfully completed their dissertations in 2026. In the third episode of the dissertation presentations, researchers from computer science and linguistics present their research findings.

Read more
Photo: Elena Esposito

This highly endowed honor ranks among the world’s top scientific awards. With this year’s Balzan Prize, Prof. Dr. Elena Esposito is being recognized for her scientific work on the sociology of AI and algorithms. At TRR 318, she leads Project B01: A dialog-based approach to explaining machine learning models. (Article in German)

Read more

Events

07.10.2026 - 09.10.2026

Writ­ing re­treat

Read more
13.10.2026 - 13.10.2026

Open Hands-On Af­ter­noon with Ro­bots, AI Games, and Chat­bots

Read more
14.10.2026 - 14.10.2026

Meth­ods for Non-Ex­perts: Bayesian Stat­ist­ics led by Kai Bier­mei­er

Read more
20.10.2026 - 20.10.2026

“AI Speaks” Work­shop: Try Out Tools Powered by Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence

Read more
21.10.2026 - 21.10.2026

Meth­ods for Non-Ex­perts: Design­ing sound and mean­ing­ful ex­per­i­ments: Prin­ciples and ideas from Psy­cho­logy led by In­grid Schar­lau

Read more
28.10.2026 - 28.10.2026

„AI as a Med­ic­al As­sist­ant“ - TRR 318 at GEN­IALE 2026

Read more
29.10.2026 - 29.10.2026

Demon­strat­or ex­hib­i­tion with par­ti­cip­a­tion from TRR re­search­ers

Read more
04.11.2026 - 04.11.2026

Meth­ods for Non-Ex­perts: Qual­it­at­ive Re­search on Quant­it­at­ive Scale? Op­por­tun­it­ies and Pit­falls of LLMs as An­not­at­ors led by…

Read more
18.11.2026

Writ­ing Day

Read more
26.11.2026

Work­shop AI in Games: Who Ac­tu­ally Makes the De­cisions?

Read more
09.12.2026

Deep read­ing. Work­ing with sci­entif­ic lit­er­at­ure for writ­ing.

Read more
16.03.2027 - 17.03.2027

4th TRR 318 Con­fer­ence: Scaf­fold­ing So­cial XAI

Read more
More events

Projects

Projects

The areas of research included in TRR 318 are divided into three categories. These three areas in turn are subdivided into interdisciplinary subprojects. Project INF provides an overarching research structure; Project WIKO facilitates public relations and outreach; Project Z addresses administrative, organizational, and financial matters; and the RTG Project provides a framework for educating doctoral and post-doctoral researchers.

Alle Projekte

Area A - Explaining process

Learn more

Area B - Explanation as social practice

Learn more

Area C - Representing and computing explanations

Learn more

Intersecting projects

Learn more

Pub­lic­a­tions

All TRR 318 pub­lic­a­tions at a glance

Specialist articles, conference papers and conference abstracts

Learn more

Mem­bers

The team of TRR 318

The co-construction of explanations is investigated by about 75 researchers from computer science, economics, linguistics, media science, philosophy, psychology and sociology at the Bielefeld and Paderborn universities.

Learn more

Re­search Train­ing Group

Net­work­ing op­por­tun­it­ies

The Integrated Research Training Group structures the further education of PhD students and postdocs. We warmly invite external PhD students to express their interest in a visiting fellowship in our Collaborative Research Center!

Learn more

AI For­um

In­sights in­to the world of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence

The website offers a collection of information from research, contextualizes current trends, and provides the opportunity to pose questions to the researchers in TRR 318.

Learn more

Media

News­let­ter

Subscribe to our Newsletter to keep updated about research and recent events of TRR 318.

Man­age­ment Team

Katharina Rohlfing

Spokesperson - Project Leader A01, A05, Z

Office: TP6.2.304
Phone: +49 5251 60-5717
E-mail: katharina.rohlfing@uni-paderborn.de
Web: Homepage

Philipp Cimiano

Deputy Spokesperson - Project Leader B01, C05

Phone: +49 521 10612249
E-mail: cimiano@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de

Suzana Alpsancar

Member - Project Leader B06

Office: N2.304
Phone: +49 5251 60-2432
E-mail: suzana.alpsancar@uni-paderborn.de
E-mail: lehrealp@mail.uni-paderborn.de
Web: Homepage

Stefan Kopp

Member - Project Leader A01, C05

Phone: +49 521 10612144
E-mail: skopp@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de

Kirsten Thommes

Member - Project Leader A03, C02

Office: Q3.301
Phone: +49 5251 60-2080
E-mail: kirsten.thommes@uni-paderborn.de
Web: Homepage

Henning Wachsmuth

Member - Project Leader C04, C07

Phone: +49 511 76212377
E-mail: h.wachsmuth@ai.uni-hannover.de

Britta Wrede

Member - Project Leader A03, A05, WIKO

Phone: +49 521 10667885
E-mail: bwrede@techfak.uni-bielefeld.de

Josephine Beryl Fisher

Member - Postdoctoral Researcher A01

Office: ZM2.B.02.26
E-mail: josephine.beryl.fisher@uni-paderborn.de
Web: Homepage

Ronja Hannebohm

Manager - Employee Z - Research Management

Office: ZM2.B.02.01
Phone: +49 5251 60-4493
E-mail: ronja.hannebohm@uni-paderborn.de
E-mail: management@trr318.uni-paderborn.de
Web: Homepage