In Berlin at each of the participating universities, one member of the academic staff acts as academic lead within the ZDS project cooperation. At Freie Universität Berlin, in the third funding period again the leading Berlin university, this has been Ms. Prof. Dr. Almut Hille (German language and literature) since 2015, and at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, likewise since 2015, Mr. Prof. Dr. Martin Heger (law).