RAN Newsletter 02/2024 Heidelberg University Successful with Six Bids for Collaborative Research Centres
In the current approval round of the German Research Foundation (DFG) Heidelberg University has been successful with six applications for grants to fund major, internationally visible research consortia, including a new humanities and social sciences Collaborative Research Centre on the topic of “Heimat” (homeland). The research consortia will receive financial resources totaling around 87 million euros over a period of four years.
The three new institutions at Heidelberg University also include a new life science CRC in cellular membrane research and a new medicine-based CRC/Transregio – a cooperation between several universities – on the neuropsychobiology of aggression. Three CRCs will be continued, one from physics dealing with quantum systems, a medical CRC/Transregio in the field of hepatitis research and another transregional CRC, concerned with cellular signal transmission in the life sciences. The three existing research consortia will reach the maximum funding period of twelve years with the continuation of their work.
The new humanities and social sciences CRC 1671 “Home(s): Phenomena, Practices, Representations” will investigate the question of why and how “Heimat” – and associated topic areas like being at home, community, motherland / fatherland, or nation – constitute a normal part of our social and individual bonding in the world. CRC 1671 connects up a host of disciplines from history, musicology and art history to theology and ancient and modern philology, from regional studies, political science, sociology, ethnology and geography to law. The CRC spokesperson is Prof. Dr Christiane Wiesenfeldt, whose teaching and research is based at Heidelberg University’s Department of Musicology. Approximately 12.9 million euros in DFG funding is available for the first funding period.
The new CRC 1638 “Remodelling Cellular Membranes: How Form Change Generates Function” focuses on identifying fundamental types of membrane remodelling that lead to changes in the composition and configuration of biological membranes. Spokesperson is Prof. Dr Michael Meinecke, a scientist at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center. In its first funding period the Collaborative Research Centre is to receive DFG finance amounting to approximately 14 million euros.
Another new venture is CRC/TRR 379 “Neuropsychobiology of Aggression: A Transdiagnostic Approach in Mental Disorders”, which explores the biological foundations of different forms of aggression disorders. The complex neurocognitive and neurobiological mechanisms that underlie “aggression in mental disorders” (AMD) have been underexposed to date, which hampers the development of successful prevention and intervention strategies. RWTH Aachen University is responsible for the spokesperson function. Co-spokesperson is Prof. Dr Sabine Herpertz, an academic at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg of Heidelberg University and Medical Director of the Department of General Psychiatry at Heidelberg University Hospital; she represents the Heidelberg and Mannheim location with the Central Institute of Mental Health. Also involved as a co-applicant university is Goethe University Frankfurt. The CRC/TRR 379 is to receive approximately 16 million euros in funding from the DFG over the next four years.
CRC 1225 “Isolated Quantum Systems and Universality in Extreme Conditions” (ISOQUANT) focuses on the investigation of characteristic common properties shown by many physical systems in spite of fundamental differences in key parameters such as temperature or density. Spokesperson of CRC ISOQUANT is Prof. Dr Jürgen Berges, a scientist at Heidelberg University’s Institute for Theoretical Physics. The DFG has granted CRC 1225 funding worth approximately 14.8 million euros for the next four years.
In CRC/TRR 179 “Determinants and Dynamics of Elimination versus Persistence of Hepatitis Virus Infection” the participating researchers are studying the five medically relevant hepatitis viruses to decipher why some infections are self-limiting and the virus is eliminated while others take a chronic course. The CRC/TRR 179 spokesperson is virologist Prof. Dr Ralf Bartenschlager, a scientist at the Medical Faculty Heidelberg of Heidelberg University and Director of the Research Unit Molecular Virology in the Center for Infectious Diseases of Heidelberg University Hospital. Co-applicants in the research consortium are the University ofFreiburg and the Technical University of Munich. The consortium, which also includes the German Cancer Research Center as a partner, will receive funding amounting to approximately 15 million euros.
CRC/TRR 186 “Molecular Switches in the Spatio-Temporal Control of Cellular Signal Transmission” deals with the coordination of signal transmission processes in living cells, which play a pivotal role for the functionality of biological systems. Co-spokesperson is Prof. Dr Walter Nickel from the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center, who served as spokesperson for six years in the first one and a half funding periods. The transregional consortium is to receive approximately 14.1 million euros in funding.