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Success in Mainz: 15 million euros in funding for research purposes

Science Minister Clemens Hoch congratulates two initiatives from Johannes Gutenberg University and their research partners at the Technical University of Darmstadt and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research for their particular success in raising third-party funds from the German Research Foundation (DFG). By 2026, the DFG will provide around 15 million euros for research into current topics.


Clemens Hoch about it

“I congratulate all the scientists involved in the initiatives on this great success. The acquisition of a new graduate college and the continuation of a collaborative research center are excellent evidence of the training of young people and the research strength at the Johannes Gutenberg University. By including the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and the Technical University of Darmstadt as strategic cooperation partners in the Collaborative Research Center, this initiative also strengthens the Rhine-Main region in a special way,” says Clemens Hoch.

With its funding decisions, the DFG made three things clear: “Firstly, the scientists involved are reaping the rewards of their successful work over the past few years for their outstanding scientific achievements and their immense commitment. Second, the initiatives further sharpen the research profile of Johannes Gutenberg University. Thirdly, the success of the Rhineland-Palatinate research policy is evident, which in recent years has successfully developed a profile by strengthening basic research and young scientists,” says Clemens Hoch.

The state’s research initiative is an important basis for the current successes

She relied on a clear research profile of the universities and the development of their strategic goals in the competition for young scientists, top researchers and funding. “The research initiative has proven itself as a catalyst for success in recent years and has provided important impetus. We have developed them further together with the universities. Outstanding research requires staying power and planning security. With the research initiative, we have a corresponding funding instrument with which we have been further promoting and strengthening the research profile of our universities since 2008. In 2022, the state will again provide funds of around 20 million euros via the research initiative,” said the minister.

The following initiatives benefit from this funding:

The research training group “Particle detectors for future experiments – from concept to operation” examines particle-physical processes using novel detectors in order to find answers to the exciting questions of basic physical research. In addition to the scientific and methodological training in the respective research projects, the graduate school offers 23 doctoral students intensive supervision with international second supervisors, stays abroad, a wide range of qualification offers and their own experiments at the MAMI/MESA accelerator in Mainz. For this purpose, the DFG will provide more than five million euros (incl. program fee) in the coming years.


Soft materials are ubiquitous in nature and technology

Examples are plastic, rubber, paper, (bio)membranes, oil, paint and liquid crystals. At room temperature, they typically respond strongly to external stimuli, ie, characteristic energies are comparable to thermal energy and there are large fluctuations. For this reason, the smallest changes in the microscopic interactions can have a large effect on the macroscopic material properties. The Collaborative Research Center “Multiscale Simulation Methods for Soft Matter Systems” has been very successfully dedicated to the development, analysis and optimization of tools for multiscale simulation of soft matter systems since 2014. Multiscale approaches are an important part of theoretical modeling in almost all areas of materials science. The properties of many materials are the result of a complex interplay of processes at a variety of scales, often orders of magnitude apart, from sub-Angstrom (local electronic structure, chemical reactions) to micron and beyond (mesoscale domain morphologies and defect dynamics). This is particularly pronounced in soft materials, which typically consist of large molecules or highly flexible and dynamic nano- or microscale constituents. The DFG continues to support successful research with almost 13 million euros (incl. program fee).

In addition to the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz as the host university, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research Mainz (MPI-P) and the Technical University of Darmstadt are involved in the Collaborative Research Center. The two universities and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research are thus continuing their longstanding successful research cooperation in the field of research into soft matter. The Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz and the Technical University of Darmstadt also cooperate in the Alliance of Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), in which the Goethe University of Frankfurt is also involved. The Rhine-Main region is one of the most diverse and top-performing scientific regions in Germany. With the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, the Goethe University in Frankfurt and the Technical University in Darmstadt, three high-performing universities are located in the Rhine-Main area. In December 2015 they joined forces to form the Rhine-Main University Alliance. The aim of the alliance is to strengthen the international visibility and attractiveness of the individual universities and the Rhine-Main science region in research and teaching. The broad spectrum of their disciplines stretches from medicine through the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences to engineering.

To the background

The DFG is the most important third-party funder for the Rhineland-Palatinate universities. Their special research areas (SFB) enjoy the highest reputation in science due to the high quality standards. CRCs are research institutions at universities set up for a period of up to twelve years, in which scientists work together across the boundaries of their respective subjects, institutes, departments and faculties within the framework of an overarching and scientifically excellent research program. They thus serve to create structures and profiles at the universities involved. In the SFB/Transregio program variant, scientists from up to three universities work together.

Research training groups are institutions of the universities for the promotion of young scientists, which are funded by the DFG for a maximum of nine years. The focus is on the qualification of doctoral students within the framework of a thematically limited research program and a structured qualification concept. In Rhineland-Palatinate, twelve graduate colleges and 18 special research areas are funded by the DFG.

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