A global policy of the common good is reliant on cross-border cooperation in order to address fundamental risks such as poverty and social inequality, violent conflicts, unstable financial markets and the consequences of climate change. Cooperation between governments and inter-governmental organisations (international cooperation) is vitally important for effectively solving problems. However, global challenges can only be tackled properly if non-governmental actors, such as civil society, the private sector and the research community, are involved (transnational cooperation).

This research programme is based on the premise that the best way for nation states to uphold their interests is to create formal international institutions. This gives rise to three closely interlinked dimensions: (a) rationale for cooperation (conceptual dimension), (b) incentive systems and power factors (systemic dimension) and (c) the actor dimension. One of the research programme clusters analyses the contribution of development policy to the global policy of the common good, while another cluster examines the factors involved in successful cooperation at international and transnational level in other policy areas. The cluster "Knowledge Cooperation" investigates in particular the role of transnational knowledge actors and knowledge communities/networks in researching and shaping global change.