Topics range from security in times of crisis to personalised treatment for colorectal cancer / A total of approximately €20.5 million for the first funding period

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing four new Research Units. This was decided by the DFG Joint Committee on the recommendation of the Senate. The new Research Units will receive total funding of approximately €20.5 million, including a 22-percent programme allowance for indirect project costs. In addition to these four newly created Research Units, the decision was made to extend ten Research Units and one Clinical Research Unit for an additional funding period. One of the newly established Research Units is being funded jointly with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under the D-A-CH cooperation.

Research Units enable researchers to pursue current and pressing issues in their areas of research and take innovative directions in their work. They are funded for up to eight years. In total, the DFG is currently funding 188 Research Units, ten Clinical Research Units and 17 Centres for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. Clinical Research Units are also characterised by the close connection between research and clinical work, while Centres for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences are specifically tailored to forms of work in the humanities and social sciences.

The new research networks in detail

(in alphabetical order of the spokespersons’ higher education institutions)

Bilingualism is the ability to communicate in more than one language. Speakers face the challenge of selecting the appropriate target language for a given context while at the same time preventing structures from the other languages they speak from being transferred to the communicative situation. The Research Unit Bilingual Flexibility – The Psychology of Language Control aims to apply the concept of “language balance” in order to investigate and better understand the flexibility of bilingual language use across different contexts. The underlying idea here is that certain cognitive mechanisms of language control in bilingual individuals play a key role in stabilising a context- and situation-based language balance. (Spokesperson: Professor Anna Katharina Kuhlen, Ph.D., RWTH Aachen)

What does security mean in times of mounting crises, disasters and loss? The Research Unit The Promise of Security in Catastrophic Times addresses this question from an interdisciplinary and collaborative perspective. It takes as its starting point the investigation of the current global crisis of peace and security which is eroding key certainties regarding the protective functions of democratic forms of government and multilateral institutions, things that were long taken for granted. The Research Unit will examine the response of governments and society at large to three closely interlinked and mutually reinforcing dimensions of crisis: the increase in wars and global conflicts, the worldwide trend towards autocracy and the ecological crisis. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Ursula Schröder, University of Hamburg)

Colorectal cancer accounts for around ten percent of all cases of cancer and is the second most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide. Involving treatment tailored to the specific molecular alterations in a tumour, genome-based precision medicine was expected to improve the prospects of cure. However, personalised therapies based on DNA sequencing have so far only been identified for a small proportion of patients. The Research Unit Functional Genomics and Microbiomics in Precision Medicine of Colorectal Cancer (GenoMiCC) will seek to investigate the complex interplay between the gut microbiome, tumour-associated genes and (targeted) drugs in the treatment of colorectal cancer, thereby developing personalised therapies. The Research Unit is funded jointly with the SNSF under the D-A-CH cooperation. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Matthias Ebert, Faculty of Medicine Mannheim, University of Heidelberg)

From the 12th to the 14th century, the inhabitants of North Frisia transformed the natural environment into a highly productive yet sensitive cultural landscape through drastic interventions. Extreme events such as storm surges subsequently turned large parts of it back into tidal flats. The Research Unit Times of Rise and Failure (TORF) - Integrative research on the cultural landscape development in the North Frisian Wadden Sea region during the common era seeks to reconstruct this medieval coastal landscape in its entirety across space and time. The aim is to capture the diverse interactions between humans and the environment, and to understand efforts to secure resources, expand settlement and combat land loss, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the region’s cultural heritage. (Spokesperson: Dr. Hanna Hadler, University of Mainz)

The research networks extended for a second funding period 

(in alphabetical order of the spokespersons’ higher education institutions and with references to the project descriptions in the DFG’s online database GEPRIS):

• Research Unit Proximity-induced correlation effects in low dimensional systems(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Christoph Tegenkamp, TU Chemnitz)
• Research Unit Reassembly of species interaction networks – Resistance, resilience and functional recovery of a rainforest ecosystem(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Nico Blüthgen, University of Darmstadt)
• Research Unit Solidification Cracks during Laser Beam Welding: High Performance Computing for High Performance Processing(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Schmidt, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU))
• Research Unit Reconfiguration and Internalization of Social Structure (RISS)(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Daniela Grunow, University of Frankfurt/Main)
• Research Unit Reducing complexity of nonequilibrium systems(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Gerhard Stock, University of Freiburg)
• Research Unit Innovation and Coevolution in Plant Sexual Reproduction – ICIPSS(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Annette Becker, University of Gießen)
• Research Unit Spiritual Intermediality in the Early Modern Period(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Johann Anselm Steiger, University of Hamburg)
• Clinical Research Unit CATCH ALL Towards a Cure for Adults and Children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL)(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Claudia Baldus, University of Kiel; Research Coordinator: Professor Dr. Matthias Peipp, Universitätsklinikum Schleswig-Holstein)
• Research Unit Cyclic Optimization(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jochen Trommer, University of Leipzig)
• Research Unit Energy Landscapes and Structure in Ion Conducting Solids (ELSICS)(externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Karl-Michael Weitzel, University of Marburg)
• Research Unit Spatial community ecology in highly dynamic landscapes: from island biogeography to metaecosystems [DynaCom](externer Link) (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Helmut Hillebrand, University of Oldenburg)

Further Information

Further information is also available from the network spokespersons.

Links to DFG Research Units:

• www.dfg.de/for/en(interner Link)
• www.dfg.de/kfo/en(interner Link)
• www.dfg.de/advanced_studies_centre(interner Link)