At a first glance, the target group of functional illiterates is very difficult to recognise. How do we narrow them down and how do we approach them? This publication presents the results from more than 100 individual projects of the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research) focus "Research and development regarding adult literacy and basic education" (2007 - 2012). The contributions deal with the detection and description of the target group in order to make offers of compensatory education available. The authors deal with the target groups from different perspectives. The current state of research is presented systematically and comprehensively. The web site www.alphabund.de provides information about the research focus and presents the work of the individual projects.weiterlesen