Main tasks of the HLCES

• Coordination and networking for international projects in the field; planning of new projects in cooperation with other scholars as well as with various private and institutional sponsors;
• Conceiving, applying for and conducting of small and large-scale projects (e.g. in manuscript studies; s. current focus below);
• Help in securing financial support for research in Ethiopian studies, including applying for scholarships and supervising graduate and postgraduate guest researchers (e.g., the DAAD, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Gerda Henkel Stiftung etc,);
• Help in training of new researchers' generation; organization of field research; of internships and practical skill application possibilities; language courses in the focus region;
• Organization of conferences and workshops;
• Research organization (manuscript cataloguing, critical editions, theses supervisions etc.).

Current work focus

• Specialized library, with the core assembled by Ernst Hammerschmidt, is being constantly enlarged in order to provide a sufficient research basis for the scholars of the HLCES. It will be complemented by a media library for images and digital formats and a digitalized microfilm collection.
• The Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, an international project aimed at creation of a multi-volume reference work on Ethiopia/Eritrea and the Horn of Africa, is being coordinated and edited at the HLCES.
• The unit of the German Academy of Science's Katalogisierung der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (Union Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts in German Libraries) for cataloguing of Ethiopian and Coptic manuscripts is part of the HLCES.
• The monographic series Aethiopistische Forschungen for groundbreaking research in Ethiopian studies appears under the editorship of the HLCES.
• The monographic series Orientalia Biblica et Christiana (co-editors Siegbert Uhlig, Ekkart Otto, Alessandro Bausi) is devoted to the issues of Biblical and Christian Oriental studies.
• The international peer-reviewed journal Aethiopica offers a publication forum for scholars of Northeastafrican studies worldwide.
• The European research networking programme Comparative Oriental Manuscript Studies , coordinated and headed from the HLCES, offers an international exchange platform for scholars in manuscript and Oriental studies.
• The project Ethio-SPARE: Cultural Heritage of Christian Ethiopia: Salvation, Preservation and Research, funded with the European Research Council's Starting Grant, aims at preservation and analysis of the Ethiopian written heritage.
• The Hiob Ludolf Guest Professorship dedicated to the Current Issues in Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies completes the classical curriculum offering courses in modern ethnological, social and political developments in North Eastern Africa.