Topics range from the automation of road vehicles to transformations in the labour market / A total of approximately €39 million for the first funding period

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing seven new Research Units and one new Centre for Advanced Studies. This was decided by the DFG Joint Committee on the recommendation of the Senate. The new Research Units will receive total funding of approximately €39 million, including a 22-percent programme allowance for indirect project costs. In addition to establishing these eight new groups, the decision was made to extend the funding of three Research Units for a second period. One of the newly established Research Units is being funded as part of D-A-CH cooperation with the Swiss National Fund (SNF).

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 197 Research Units, 12 Clinical Research Units and 17 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 networks in detail

(in alphabetical order of the spokespersons’ higher education institutions (HEIs))

The Research Unit MiRoVA – Migration of Road Vehicle Automation focuses on the long-term transition from human-guided transport to automated transport, allowing for the fact that there are already and will continue to be hybrid forms in which human-guided cars share the road with those controlled by machines. The network will look at how autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles can be integrated safely and efficiently into the transport system, assessing how acceptable and usable such vehicles are in a mixed scenario. Three specific situations will be analysed: pedestrian crossings, motorway slip roads and lane changes on motorways. The researchers will also address the fundamental but as yet insufficiently understood question of how different people interact and cooperate with technology at different levels of automation. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Frank O. Flemisch, RWTH Aachen)

As a result of global change processes such as digitisation, globalisation and climate change, economies worldwide are facing the challenge of changing structures in the area of labour needs. There is an increasing demand for qualifications that only a few workers and specialists currently possess. For this reason, the Research Unit Labour market transformation: Scarcity, Mismatch, and Policy examines the above-mentioned transformation processes that are causing this shift in the demand for certain skills within the labour force. It also looks at how policy can counter the mismatch between required and existing qualifications so as to reduce the shortage of skilled workers and specialists. In doing so, it focuses particularly on the areas of family and gender policy, immigration, education and pension policy, based on an international comparison. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Peter Haan, FU Berlin)

As a result of various crises in the EU, such as those in the areas of finance, migration and the COVID-19 pandemic, and the changes these have brought about, it is time from an academic point of view to consider the reorganisation of the EU from a broader perspective. This is the aim of the Research Unit Reconfiguring Europe: Between competence and control, which will be funded jointly with the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF). The underlying proposition here is that the EU is torn between establishing authorities to solve cross-border problems and controlling those authorities. This gives rise to a dilemma: uncontrolled authorities are dangerous, over-controlled authorities are useless. The network assumes that the EU’s reorganisation is determined by how this dilemma is handled. It seeks to understand the trade-offs between authority and control, and also how these evolve over time and between different policy areas. In addition, the researchers will look to explain the emergence and development of these trade-offs, ultimately assessing what this means in terms of the transformation of the EU as a whole. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Markus Jachtenfuchs, Hertie School Berlin)

The increasingly intense international debate on how to deal with the colonial legacy marks a new, reflective phase of globalisation. This is one of the initial propositions of the Centre for Advanced Studies Reflexive Globalization and the Law: Colonial Legacies and their Global Implications in the 21st Century. It aims to explicitly expand the discourse on globalisation in the area of legal studies to include a postcolonial perspective. The objective of the project is to contribute to debates on asymmetries in global knowledge production and scholarly practice. Furthermore, the Research Unit will seek to develop a better understanding of the meaning, contextual relationships and scope of legal concepts. It also aims to draw on the notion of reflexive globalisation to gain a better understanding of the current readjustment of the South-North relationship. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Philipp Dann, HU Berlin)

In addition to diseases with a clearly inflammatory character such as multiple sclerosis, the progression of neurodegenerative, vascular and traumatic brain diseases is heavily influenced by neuroinflammation, a chronic inflammation of the central nervous system.

Yet there is still a lack of any detailed understanding of how this chronic inflammation affects the function and survival of nerve cells. The Research Unit NeuroFlame – Defence and demise of inflamed neurons aims to close this knowledge gap by investigating neuronal defence strategies against inflammation and the damaging effect of inflammation on neurons. The researchers hope that in this way, they will be able to help develop targeted treatments that protect neurons. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Manuel A. Friese, University of Hamburg)

Lipid droplets are cell organelles that have a vital role to play in the body’s fat metabolism. Little research has been dedicated to this subject to date, which is why there is a poor understanding of many aspects of their formation, function and heterogeneity, as well as their degradation in response to cellular signals. For this reason, the Research Unit Structural and functional lipid droplet heterogeneity will seek to take a closer look at these organelles so as to shed light on the significance of the diversity of lipid droplets in both healthy and diseased individuals. In doing so, the researchers contribute to a more differentiated understanding of cellular homeostasis in the case of fluctuations in nutrients and also pathophysiological challenges. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Eva Herker, University of Marburg)

Muscle atrophy occurs when skeletal muscle tissue shrinks and muscle mass decreases. By contrast, muscle hypertrophy is when the musculature becomes larger as a result of increased strain such as physical labour or muscle training. The different effects of these two phenomena on metabolic health are the focus of the Research Unit HyperMet: Effects of skeletal muscle hypertrophy and atrophy on metabolic health. The relevance of this topic is becoming increasingly apparent in the face of an ageing and sedentary society: it has been observed that muscle atrophy has predominantly negative health effects, for instance. By contrast, muscle hypertrophy is associated with fat loss, better regulated sugar levels, higher bone mineral density and positive effects in cancer. For this reason, the researchers look into whether a growing or declining muscle releases metabolites – substances that are produced as intermediate or breakdown products of metabolic processes – that lead to a disruption of metabolism or improved metabolic health in other tissues. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Henning Wackerhage, TU Munich)

In the environmental and geo sciences, the sheer volume and heterogeneity of the data makes it extremely challenging to perform data analysis. Experience indicates that data analysis workflows are often designed only for specific scenarios and applications and used within a single working group or organisation. The Research Unit SOS: Serverless Scientific Computing and Engineering for Earth Observation and Sustainability Research aims to develop a platform for the environmental and geosciences that will allow such sophisticated analyses of complex data to be linked and performed without having to worry about programming or technical details such as resources or reproducibility. In the long term, the objective is to help the entire community to transition to big data science by providing a central tool. (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Samuel Kounev, University of Würzburg)

The research networks extended for a second funding period

(in alphabetical order of the spokespersons’ higher education institutions (HEIs) and with references to the project descriptions in the DFG’s online database GEPRIS):

• RU Periodic low-dimensional defect structures in polar oxides (Spokesperson: Professor Dr.-Ing. Holger Fritze, TU Clausthal) 
  https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/426703838
• RU Integrated analysis of epithelial SLC26 anion transporters – from molecular structure to pathophysiology (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Dominik Oliver, University of Marburg) 
  https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/426950122 
• RU Military Cultures of Violence – Illegitimate Military Violence from the Early Modern Period to the Second World War (Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Sönke Neitzel, University of Potsdam)
  https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/407133841

Further Information

Further information is also available from the network spokespersons.

Links to DFG Research Units:

• www.dfg.de/for/en
• www.dfg.de/kfo/en
• www.dfg.de/advanced_studies_centre