Topics ranging from catalysts and visual communication to main memory technologies / Approxi-mately €82 million for three years

Topics ranging from catalysts and visual communication to main memory technologies / Approxi-mately €82 million for three years

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing 13 new Priority Programmes (SPP) for 2022. This was decided by the DFG Senate at a meeting that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. The 13 new consortia were selected from 47 submitted initiatives and will receive a total of approximately €82 million for an initial three years. In addition, there will be a 22-percent programme allowance for indirect project-related costs.

The programmes now approved cover the entire breadth of subjects, including the humanities and social sciences, engineering sciences, life sciences and natural sciences. The diverse range of topics include an analysis of the interaction between societies and pre-industrial floodplains in Central Europe “on the way to the fluvial anthroposphere”, a study of how European society has treated Jewish cultural heritage and the development of machine learning for molecular applications. The programmes each reflect the generic theme of the respective SPP. In the coming months, the DFG will announce the consortia individually before going on to review the incoming funding proposals in terms of scientific quality and their contribution to the overriding theme in each case.

The aim of Priority Programmes is to investigate the scientific foundations of particularly topical or emerging research areas. All programmes have a clear interdisciplinary orientation and use particularly innovative methods. The promotion of early career investigators is a central element of the SPP; in addition, all new consortia are organised according to an equal opportunities concept. Priority programmes are funded for six years. A total of 89 SPPs are currently being funded.

The new Priority Programmes in detail
(in alphabetical order of the coordinators’ HEIs)

• Priority Programme “Linking catalysts, mechanisms and reactor concepts for the conversion of dinitrogen by electrocatalytic, photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical methods (“nitroconversion”)” (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Roland Marschall, University of Bayreuth)
• Priority Programme “Resilience in networked worlds – Managing failures, overload, attacks and the unknown” (Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Falko Dressler, TU Berlin)
• Priority Programme “Local and peripheral factors of microglial diversity and function” (Coordinator: Dr. Susanne Wolf, Charité – FU Berlin and HU Berlin)
• Priority Programme “One Hundred Plus – Extending the life of complex building structures through intelligent digitalisation”. (Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Steffen Marx, TU Dresden)
• Priority Programme “Emergent functions of bacterial multicellularity”
  (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Thorsten Mascher, TU Dresden)
• Priority Programme “Visual communication. Theoretical, empirical and applied perspectives (ViCom)” (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Cornelia Ebert, University of Frankfurt)
• Priority Programme “Jewish cultural heritage” (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Sarah M. Ross, Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media)
• Priority Programme “Autonomous processes in particle technology – Research and testing of concepts for model-based control of particle technology processes” (Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Hermann Nirschl, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
• Priority Programme “On the way to the fluvial anthroposphere”
  (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Christoph Zielhofer, University of Leipzig)
• Priority Programme “The genomic basis of evolutionary innovations (GEvol)”
  (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Erich Bornberg-Bauer, University of Münster)
• Priority Programme “Use and development of machine learning for molecular applications – Molecular machine learning”
  (Coordinator: Professor Dr. Frank Glorius, University of Münster)
• Priority Programme “Disruptive main storage technologies”
  (Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Olaf Spinczyk, University of Osnabrück)
• Priority Programme “Daring to use more intelligence – Design assistants in mechanics and dynamics” (Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Eberhard, University of Stuttgart)

Further Information

Media contact:

• DFG Press and Public Relations
  Tel. +49 228 885-2109
  presse@dfg.de

Information is also available from the coordinators of the new Priority Programmes.

For further details of DFG Priority Programmes, see:

• www.dfg.de/spp/en