Since 1976 the ASER research group carries out basics- and application-oriented research and development projects in the area of work-, safety- information- and traffic sciences. Traditional working fields are the workscientific analysis, assessment and organization of employed and voluntary or private work as well as the workand safety scientific basic research to special cause-effect-connections by means of experimental lab and field studies. During the same time research and development projects in the area of product development and product design are carried out with ergonomic, safety and work-psychological goals.
Since the beginning of the 1990s an additional working field concerning the effective and efficient transfer of information and knowledge about work, safety and traffic sciences has been established for experts from small and medium-sized enterprises as well as for citizens, which early leads into an innovative network research and into lasting system developments. In this area, the present competence net on work, developed by the Institute ASER e.V. for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia was awarded already in 2000 in the contest "e-Government in federal administrations and regional administrations " by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and was awarded in 2001 in the e Government contest "From Policy to Practice" by the European commission as "The very best practice of e- Government in Europe today".