National Research

Success for junior academics and researchers was accompanied in 2017 by further successes for research funding. Last year saw the start of the DFG Collaborative Research Centre Transregio SFB TRR 196 – Mobile Material Characterization and Localization by Electromagnetic Sensing (MARIE). Its coordinator is Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Kaiser (Faculty of Engineering Sciences, UDE), and the co-coordinator is Prof. Dr. Ilona Rolfes (Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, RUB). In addition to the UDE and RUB as coordinating institutions, the Fraunhofer Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems (IMS) in Duisburg, the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (FHR) in Wachtberg, TU Darmstadt and Wuppertal University are collaborating in the centre.

The UDE has been doubly successful when it comes to the DFG Priority Programmes (SPP). SPP 2122 “Materials for Additive Manufacturing” was launched, with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Stephan Barcikowski from the Faculty of Chemistry as its coordinator. Approval was also received for SPP 1980: “Nanoparticle Synthesis in Spray Flames (SpraySyn): Measurement, Simulation, Processes”, which is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Christof Schulz, Faculty of Engineering Sciences.

Approval was also granted in 2017 to continue Priority Programme SPP 1748 “Reliable Simulation Techniques in Solid Mechanics. Development of Non-standard Discretization Methods, Mechanical and Mathematical Analysis”, which I coordinate. The DFG confirmed that SFB 1093 “Supramolecular Chemistry on Proteins” is to receive funding for a further four years. Its coordinators are Prof. Dr. Thomas Schrader and Prof. Dr. Carsten Schmuck from the Faculty of Chemistry. The team is also growing, with the 15 research groups from the UDE and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund being joined by three new research groups from the UDE and the University of Düsseldorf.

Another area in which the UDE is heavily engaged is the newly established Collaborative Research Centre at the RUB on “Extinction Learning”, in which its Prof. Dr. Dagmar Timmann- Braun from the Faculty of Medicine is the co-coordinator. The coordinator is Prof. Dr. Onur Güntürkün from the RUB.

The UDE has been equally successful in the North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) state programme for returning scholars. In 2017, two out of a total of three groups funded under the initiative were awarded to our university. They are led by Prof. Dr. Alexander J. Probst, Faculty of Chemistry, and Prof. Dr. Paul Marx, Faculty of Social Sciences.

The UDE has also won two of six junior research groups under the NRW state programme “Digital Society”. They are: “Digital Party Research (DIPART). Political Parties in the Digital Age”, led by Dr. Isabelle Borucki, and “Digital Citizenship in Network Technologies (DICINT) – The Formation of Opinion Homogeneity in Online Networks and its Effects on Civic Participation”, coordinated by Dr. German Neubaum.