The orientation of this research centre is transdisciplinary and interprets transdisciplinarity as "transclusion", i.e. "as mutually inclusive transculturality" of different academic and non-academic knowledge cultures. This means that the research centre is conceived as a research, communication and transfer centre between and within academic and non-academic fields. Our research centre thus aims to promote cooperation between academic and non-academic actors in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. It is intended to open up a variety of spaces for exchange and reflection on current topics in pop music culture research/popular music studies and thus actively contribute to the relevant current discourse in academia, media, journalism and society. The formats for this range from research projects, conferences, workshops and panel discussions to publications, podcasts and pop music journalism to events in the public space between science and art, such as those successfully practised in 2019 in the series "Druckwellen: Feeling and Thinking" series. In all of these ways, the transdisciplinary research, teaching and transfer area with a focus on cultural studies is being further established and internationalised. Transdisciplinarity is a central approach to utilising different perspectives, approaches and attitudes consistently and integratively (instead of selectively and additively) in order to approach complex phenomena and issues from multiple perspectives.

The tasks of C:POP extend to study programmes, research and teaching. The focus here is inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation with internal and external university stakeholders, on the qualification of young academics and on the transfer of knowledge in the field of inter- and transdisciplinary pop music culture research/popular music studies.
In particular, the focus is on

• the internationalisation of german pop music culture research/popular music studies,
• applying for third-party funding for research, teaching and qualification of young academic careers,
• the promotion of doctoral candidates in the national and international field of pop music culture research/popular music studies,
• the conception and realisation of academic conferences, symposia and workshops,
• the conception, application, realisation and support of research projects in pop music culture research,
• the publication of research results, in print and digitally,
• establishing sustainable collaborations and intensifying synergy and transfer effects with local, regional, national and international internal and external university partners from cultural policy, the event, music and media industries, creative industries and journalism, among others, to create an international communication, reflection and research platform on pop music cultures,
• the further development of study and teaching programmes in the field of pop music culture research/popular music studies at Paderborn University,
• the continuation and expansion of the pop lectureship and cooperation with international guest researchers at Paderborn University.