Topics range from chronic liver disease to legal consequences of automated decision making / A total of approximately €49 million for the first funding period

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing nine new Research Units and one new Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences. This was decided by the DFG Joint Committee on the recommendation of the Senate. The new Research Units will receive total funding of approximately €49 million, including a 22-percent programme allowance for indirect project costs. In addition to these ten newly created Research Units, the decision was made to extend nine Research Units and one Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences for an additional funding period. One of the newly approved Research Units is being funded jointly with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) under the D-A-CH cooperation. Two of the extended Research Units are funded jointly with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the SNF, and another two with the FWF.

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 191 Research Units, 9 Clinical Research Units and 18 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 units in detail
(in alphabetical order of the spokespersons’ higher education institutions)

New developments in world trade are having an impact on the cost-benefit-ratio of globalisation: on the one hand, leeway for welfare gains to the benefit of society has been increasing, and on the other hand, there has been an increase in national and international distribution conflicts. This has given rise to new challenges for political decision-makers and has made intervention necessary, not least to address increasing opposition to globalisation and a new wave of nationalist movements. In this context, the Research Unit International Division of Labour (IDoL): New Challenges for Workers, Firms, and Policy Makers is taking a closer look at new aspects of globalisation, technological change, as well as the winners and losers of global trading. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Hartmut Egger, University of Bayreuth)

Proton-conducting ceramics are key materials for energy storage and fuel cell technology, as they can be used as electrolytes. New approaches are, however, needed here, as existing composition and process-based material design strategies have been increasingly reaching their limitations. In this context, the Research Unit Synergistic Design of Proton Conducting Ceramics for Energy Technology (SynDiPET) seeks to conduct a comprehensive review of defect chemistry, innovative manufacturing methods, microstructure formation and physical functionality in consideration of multi-scale machine learning (ML) simulations and methods, aiming to design and optimise microstructures of electrolyte ceramics. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Bai-Xiang Xu, TU Darmstadt)

Chronic liver disease can transition from reversible inflammatory states to an irreversible hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), a form of liver cancer. A better understanding of the alarm signals that occur in the body is essential to be able to predict the risk of patients developing an HCC more effectively in the future, and to develop personalised approaches to cancer prevention. This is where the Research Unit How Death and Danger Signals dynamically control Stage Transitions in Chronic Hepatic Disease (dangerhep) comes into play. It aims to explore how the body releases specific alarm signals in the event of liver damage, how such alarm signals control interaction between liver and immune cells, and how such interaction mediates state transitions. (Spokesperson: Professor Tom Lüdde, Ph.D., University Hospital Düsseldorf)

Computing centres, mobile devices, AI boom and autonomous driving: the exponential growth of energy consumption for information and communication technology around the world is contributing considerably to global climate change. It is therefore essential that the amount of electricity consumed by computers is reduced at a global scale. The Research Unit Holistic Energy and Performance Modeling for Sustainable Computing (Mod4Comp) therefore seeks to gain a greater understanding of the capacity and energy-consumption of highly specialised computing architecture in this field – for example in the area of artificial intelligence – aiming to ensure a low-energy approach right from the design stage in the future. To this end, the network is developing new modelling processes that allow for hardware and software to be considered holistically. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dietmar Fey, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)

The identity leadership approach that is based on the idea of social identity explores the ways in which leadership can strengthen societal cohesion and help to master challenges such as polarisation, crises and climate change. The Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences Rethinking Leadership: Identity Leadership as Group-oriented Tool for Addressing the Challenges of our Times aims to advance research on identity-based leadership using new methods and inter-disciplinary perspectives from the areas of psychology and economics. The focus is on further theoretical development of the concept of social identity and its practical relevance. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Rolf van Dick, University of Frankfurt/Main)

Simultaneous occurrence of abiotic and biotic stress factors, such as drought paired with fungal infestation in crop plants, is a key research topic in the context of ensuring food security for a rapidly growing world population. For most types of plants and combinations of stresses, no field research has been performed to date on this type of combined stress. The Research Unit Concurrent Multiple Abiotic and Biotic Stress Interactions in Maize: Impacts and Mechanisms (MultiStress) seeks to change this. Its goal is to interlink field testing and ecophysiological modelling to gain a greater understanding of the impact that multiple stresses have on the physiology and performance of crop plants in terms of factors such as yield, biomass quality and efficiency of water and nutrient use. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Reimund P. Rötter, University of Göttingen)

In everyday life, people are frequently confronted with multiple tasks simultaneously. This phenomenon known as multitasking has been studied quite thoroughly. It is often the case that we deliberately switch between tasks in situations like this. However, there is still a lack of understanding concerning the mechanisms of the underlying decisions. The Research Unit Voluntary Task Switching: Cognitive Processes and Models to Account for Task Choices aims to identify the determinants of voluntary task selection and to develop formal models that depict such decisions based on current theories. In doing so, the Research Unit is combining two previously separate research disciplines: multitasking and decision-making research. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Markus Raab, German Sport University Cologne)

Vascular disease, strokes and high blood pressure are common consequences of systemic autoimmune diseases. Evidence suggests that autoantibodies that are specific to G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are involved in this. The Research Unit Autoantibodies against G Protein-Coupled Receptors as Drivers of Vasculopathies (AbsInVasc) seeks to identify the molecular mechanisms that lead to the development of pathogenic GPCR-specific autoantibodies that are characteristic of receptor-antibody-interactions and downstream signal paths, as well as to examine the pathophysiological role of GPCR autoantibodies. The ultimate aim is to gain insights about inflammatory vascular diseases and possible new forms of therapies. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Gabriela Riemekasten, University of Lübeck)

Automated decision making has been increasingly supporting, supplementing or replacing human action and design. This frequently involves AI systems that are steadily becoming more powerful thanks to an enormous increase in computing capacity and the related possibility to analyse ever greater amounts of data. This extremely wide-spread use of automated decision-making marks a legal and societal turning point. The Research Unit The Legal and Social Consequences of Artificial Decision Making seeks to identify the resulting challenges and potential of automated decision-making, to develop options for shaping legal structures and to re-map the role of legal studies in the advent of automated decision-making. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Stefan Arnold, University of Münster)

The central goal of the Research Unit Machine Learning for Complex Quantum States is to further advance basic research of complex quantum systems with the help of artificial intelligence, both in theory and through experimentation. The initiative specifically seeks to find new ways for investigating entanglement structures and non-local order, aiming to identify characteristics of such quantum states. Further research questions relate to information propagation and equilibration in these types of systems, as well as controlled generation of quantum entanglement. The Research Unit is funded under the D-A-CH cooperation with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). (Spokesperson: Dr. Markus Schmitt, University of Regensburg)


The research units 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 From Imprecision to Robustness in Neural Circuit Assembly (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Peter Robin Hiesinger, FU Berlin)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/453877723

Research Unit Mechanism-Based Characterization and Modelling of Permanent and Bioresorbable Implants with Tailored Functionality Based on Innovative in Vivo, in Vitro and in Silico Methods (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Frank Walther, TU Dortmund)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/449916462

Centre for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices from a Global Perspective (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Dominik M. Müller, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/491072807

Research Unit Quantitative Spatio-Temporal Model-Building for Correlated Electronic Matter (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Maria Roser Valenti, University of Frankfurt/Main) The Research Unit is funded under the D-A-CH cooperation with the Austrian Fund for Scientific Research (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/449872909

Research Unit Mathematical Statistics in the Information Age – Statistical Efficiency and Computational Tractability (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Angelika Rohde, University of Freiburg) The Research Unit is funded under the framework of the D-A-CH cooperation together with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/460867398

Research Unit Financial Markets and Frictions – An Intermediary Asset Pricing Approach (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Marliese Uhrig-Homburg, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)) The Research Unit is funded under the framework of the D-A-CH cooperation together with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/447617473

Research Unit Membrane Trafficking Processes Underlying Presynaptic Proteostasis (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Michael R. Kreutz, Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology (LIN), Magdeburg)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/447288260

Research Unit Fast and Invisible: Conquering Subsurface Stormflow through an Interdisciplinary Multi-Site Approach (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Peter Chifflard, University of Marburg). The Research Unit is funded under the D-A-CH cooperation with the Austrian Fund for Scientific Research (FWF) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF).
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/453746323

Research Unit Relativistic Jets in Active Galaxies (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Matthias Kadler, University of Würzburg)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/443220636

Research Unit Future Methods for Studying Confined Gluons in QCD (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Francesco Knechtli, University of Wuppertal)
https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/451886959