The Institute for Regional Research is a department of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences of the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. It was founded 1970 by Reimut Jochimsen and was lead by Karin Peschel for many years. Johannes Bröcker has headed the institute since 2000. The institute’s research deals with spatial economic development on a European, national and regional scale. Recently, a focus is on spatial impacts of infrastructure, in the spirit of the founder Reimut Jochimsen. Following the tradition pioneered by Karin Peschel the research is based on modern mathematical methods. The research is externally financed, among others by the Framework Programmes of the EU, the German Employment Agency and Directorates of the EU commission. The director of the institute acts as advisor for the State and the EU commission.

Members of the institute are teaching in Bachelor, Master, and Ph.D. Programmes of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences introductory economics, microeconomics, spatial economics, growth theory and applied equilibrium modelling. In addition, the institute offers a special Programme in Regional Science that students in economics, business and geography can choose as a part of their respective programmes. The programme covers spatial economics, methods of empirical regional science and software training.