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Press Release No. 37 | 1 December 2025

DFG to Fund Nine New Collaborative Research Centres

Topics range from fungal-based building materials and autoimmune diseases to molecular boron chemistry. / €120 million in funding for the first funding period

DFG_Forschungsbereiche-SFB-4-3-DB

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing nine new Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) to further support top-level research at universities. This was decided by the responsible Grants Committee in Bonn. The new CRCs will receive a total of approximately €120 million in funding for an initial period of three years and nine months as of April 2026. This includes a programme allowance of 22 percent for indirect project costs. One of the new Centres is a CRC/Transregio (TRR) which is made up of multiple applicant universities.

In addition to the establishment of the nine new groups, the Grants Committee also approved the extension of another 32 existing CRCs for an additional funding period, including 15 CRC/Transregios. Collaborative Research Centres allow researchers to tackle innovative, challenging and long-term research projects as a group, thereby supporting the further development of priority areas and structures at the applicant universities. This means that a total of 257 Centres will be in receipt of DFG funding as of April 2026.

In the case of two CRCs that are already receiving funding, the Grants Committee has also approved six transfer projects each.

The new Collaborative Research Centres in detail 

(in alphabetical order by their host university, including the names of spokespersons and the other applicant universities):

Will building materials and furniture be produced from fungi in the future? The CRC MY-CO BUILD: Biomanufacturing, characterisation and sustainability assessment of fungal-based building materials aims to realise this vision by developing a new class of fungal-based materials that are both biologically produced and biodegradable. In order to research and develop these materials, the project will draw on fungal biotechnology. The consortium plans to examine the biological, mechanical, physical, chemical, thermal, acoustic and architectural property profiles of fungal-based materials in interaction with the genetic potential of the fungal organism used. (TU Berlin, Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Vera Meyer)

Autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammatory disorders currently have no lasting cure. Their treatment is costly, demanding and usually involves significant restrictions for patients. The CRC CASCAID – Cellular and Systems Control of Autoimmune Disease seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying chronic inflammation and therapy resistance. The consortium focuses in particular on immune cells and their interactions within the affected tissues. Through the targeted integration of analyses on patient tissue, the project ultimately aims to take steps towards using novel forms of therapy to replace current treatment approaches, which entail lifelong immunosuppression and involve further medical complications. (University Erlangen-Nuremberg), Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Georg Schett)

How can the education system be made fairer for children and young people? And how can inclusion and recognition be better implemented in educational processes? At present, there is no overarching academic approach that is able to satisfactorily answer these questions or provide a comprehensive analysis of educational inequalities in schools and higher education. The CRC Inclusion : Recognition : Justice. Participation and Involvement in Childhood and Adolescence aims to develop a framework that examines educational inequality in Germany and compares it with data from other countries. The project seeks to combine theoretical and empirical research in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of educational injustice. (University of Frankfurt/Main, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Merle Hummrich)

What role do silence and noise play in language use? In everyday communication, different forms of silence occur (omitted parts of sentences, unspoken thoughts), as do noisy signals (unfamiliar pronunciations in dialects, conversations in loud restaurants). Yet people are effortlessly able to ignore violations of linguistic rules, filter out irrelevant articulatory features and reinterpret irregular patterns as part of language games or linguistic change. Up to now, linguistics has not attempted to examine silence and noise in their various forms within an integrated framework. The CRC Silence, Noise and Signal in Language seeks to change this by working to expand existing linguistic theories. (University of Konstanz, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Miriam Butt)

The systematic focus of the CRC Chemical and Biological Principles of Cellular Trigger Responses will be how cells respond to changes in their environment and process the relevant stimuli – so-called triggers. With the methodological spectrum available to research date, it has not been possible to study triggers within the complex environment of a cell, so a detailed understanding is lacking of how cells perceive triggers and which processes they use to respond. The consortium aims to address this gap with a comprehensive approach that includes both bacterial and eukaryotic cells as well as chemical and physical triggers that have so far received little attention. (University of Konstanz, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Erika Isono)

Desmosomes are molecular structures that create connections between cells. There is growing evidence that defects in these structures contribute to inflammatory diseases in human epithelial organs. Pemphigus vulgaris is caused by autoantibodies directed against desmosomes, for example, and manifests itself in severe blistering of the skin. The CRC/Transregio Desmosomal dysfunction in epithelial barriers (DEFINE) aims to investigate key mechanisms of desmosomal dysfunction based on different diseases that affect the skin and gastrointestinal tract. By comparing various disease patterns, the project also seeks to generate overarching insights into the fundamental functions of desmosomes. (University of Marburg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael Hertl; also applying: LMU Munich, University of Würzburg)

The CRC Compartmentalized cellular networks in neurovascular diseases examines neurovascular diseases (NVDs), which are among the most common causes of death and disability worldwide. Despite this, there are only a limited number of therapeutic options currently available, partly because the underlying mechanisms of NVDs are still insufficiently understood. The consortium therefore plans to investigate the cellular and molecular processes that determine the course and complications of these diseases. This work is based on the hypothesis that these processes do not occur in isolation but are governed by highly coordinated interactions within compartmentalised networks of vascular, immune and glial cells. (LMU Munich, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Martin Dichgans)

Around 50 million couples worldwide are affected by infertility, with roughly half of all cases attributable to male infertility. Nevertheless, research to date has focused primarily on female infertility, meaning that the pathomechanisms underlying infertility in men are still not sufficiently understood. The CRC Principles of Reproduction – Unravelling the Molecular Mechanisms of Male Infertility aims to address this by conducting in-depth research into male infertility. The findings will seek to support the development of improved treatment options, including for women, who currently bear most of the risks and burdens associated with fertility treatments. (University of Münster, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Frank Tüttelmann)

Boron as property-determining element is the central focus of the CRC of the same name. The aim is to establish molecular boron chemistry as a versatile platform for a wide range of applications – in fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and functional materials where the boron atom determines the properties either on its own or in combination with other building blocks. The consortium intends to explore novel boron-centred synthesis and catalysis strategies and classes of compounds, while also developing boron-based functional materials, for example for battery technology, sensing and optoelectronic components. Further boron compounds are to be developed for use as fluorescence markers or anticancer therapeutics. (University of Würzburg, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Maik Finze)

The CRCs extended for a further funding period 

(in alphabetical order by their host university, including the names of the spokespersons and additional applicant universities, with reference to the project descriptions in the DFG online database GEPRIS):

Transfer projects for Collaborative Research Centres already in receipt of funding

For two CRCs, the Grants Committee has additionally approved six transfer projects each. The projects will receive a total of some €5 million in funding. The application partners involved in all approved projects are from a wide range of sectors (including automotive engineering, mechanical engineering and testing technology) and will be supporting the researchers with their own resources. The insights gained through the transfer projects are to be fed back into the respective consortia, thereby further enriching basic research.

The transfer projects conducted as part of the CRC Precision manufacturing by controlling melt dynamics and solidification in production processes (RWTH Aachen, Spokesperson: Professor Dr Uwe Reisgen), funded since 2014, address topics such as avoiding stress-induced cracking in laser micro-welding, AI-optimised path planning for laser welding processes and the integration of neural networks into casting simulations. 

The goals of the transfer projects conducted as part of the CRC/Transregio Method development for mechanical joinability in versatile process chains (University of Paderborn, Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Gerson Meschut; also applying: TU Dresden, University of Erlangen–Nuremberg), funded since 2019, include taking friction modelling for mechanical joining and forming processes under industrial conditions and transferring this to practical application, together with methods that enhance the strength of joints in fibre-reinforced plastics.

Further Information

For further information about the funding programme and the funded Collaborative Research Centres, see: www.dfg.de/sfb/en(interner Link).

Further information is also available from the spokespersons of the Collaborative Research Centres.

Contact

Media contact
Contact at DFG Head Office
Media contact
DFG Press and Public Relations
E-mail: presse@dfg.de
Telephone: +49 228 885-2109
Contact at DFG Head Office
Dr. Suzanne Zittartz-Weber
E-mail: Suzanne.Zittartz-Weber@dfg.de
Telephone: +49 (228) 885-2304

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