Clusters of Excellence
The University of Bonn is one of the leading research universities in Germany and also enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide. This can be seen by the funding provided to date under the Excellence Initiative by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat). In 2006, the University of Bonn was awarded two Clusters of Excellence and two Graduate Schools. Since January 2019, the University of Bonn has six Clusters of Excellence, more than any other university in Germany.
Anton Bovier, professor at the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the University of Bonn and member of the Cluster of Excellence Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM), has been elected as fellow of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc).
Researchers at the University of Bonn and the University of Cambridge have identified an important control circuit involved in the eating process. The study has revealed that fly larvae have special sensors, or receptors, in their esophagus that are triggered as soon as the animal swallows something. If the larva has swallowed food, they tell the brain to release serotonin. This messenger substance – which is often also referred to as the feel-good hormone – ensures that the larva continues to eat. The researchers assume that humans also have a very similar control circuit. The results were recently published in the journal “Current Biology.”
There have never been so many ERC Starting Grants at once at the University of Bonn: no fewer than seven researchers have been successful with their applications in the highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) funding process. With their funding of some €1.5 million each, the researchers from the fields of ethics, mathematics, economics, soil science, computer science and astronomy will be able to realize their projects over the next five years.
From infancy and usually for life, some families suffer from broken hair due to a congenital form of hair loss called monilethrix. Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn and the University of Bonn have now identified causative mutations in another keratin gene, KRT31. They hope that this will improve the diagnosis of this rare disease. Their results have now been published in the renowned "British Journal of Dermatology".
The six Clusters of Excellence
These six Clusters of Excellence of the University of Bonn are where top-level research is conducted: the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies deals with issues of “asymmetric dependency,” ECONtribute: Markets and Public Policy is grounded in economics and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics is an internationally significant center for mathematical research and teaching. ImmunoSensation2 studies the immune system, ML4Q—Matter and Light for Quantum Computing focuses on quantum information and PhenoRob is Germany’s only Cluster of Excellence that combines the agricultural sciences with engineering.
“Asymmetric dependency“—with this new guiding concept, the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies (BCDSS) Cluster of Excellence has offered a new route to accessing slavery and dependency research since 2019. It studies all forms of deep social dependency such as slavery, serfdom, debt bondage and other kinds of permanent dependency relationship. The researchers involved cover disciplines as varied as anthropology, American studies, anthropology of the Americas, archaeology, Asian studies, history, Islamic studies, law and theology. They study all time periods, regions and cultures as well as all shades on the spectrum between “free” and “not free.” Through its broad-based approach, the Cluster of Excellence is opening up dependency research to some completely new transcultural perspectives and comparisons.
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Stephan Conermann, Islamic Studies, Universität Bonn
Institutions involved:
Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Frankfurt am Main
Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies (BICC), Bonn
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), Bonn
Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum, Cologne
Ruhr University Bochum
ECONtribute, Germany’s only Cluster of Excellence in economics, has been run jointly by the University of Bonn and the University of Cologne since 2019 and focuses its research on markets caught between the conflicting demands of the economy, politics and society. Its researchers, who cover disciplines from economics, business administration and psychology through to ethics, social sciences, politics and law, are aiming to gain a better understanding of challenges such as digitalization, global financial crises, growing inequality and political polarization and to make recommendations for how politicians can respond based on the evidence.
Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Thomas Dohmen, Applied Micro-Economics, University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Matthias Heinz, Director of the Reinhard Selten Institute, University of Bonn and University of Cologne
Prof. Dr. Pia Pinger, Economics, University of Cologne
Universities involved:
University of Cologne
Institutions involved:
Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn
The Hausdorff Center for Mathematics (HCM) was founded in 2006 as the first-ever Cluster of Excellence for mathematics in Germany. It has evolved into an internationally significant center for mathematical research and teaching and for academic dialogue. The HCM produces a host of world-renowned award winners every year. Its research interests range from pure and applied mathematics and questions of economics through to interdisciplinary projects involving colleagues from fields such as materials research and the life sciences.
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Valentin Blomer, Mathematical Institute, University of Bonn
Institutions involved:
Max Planck Institute for Mathematics
The ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence was set up in 2012 with the mission of improving our understanding of the immune system beyond the boundaries of conventional immunology. As part of this philosophy, the immune system is viewed as a “sensory organ” for our health. The cluster’s research focuses on the immune sensors—the receptors of the innate immune system—and their role in illness-related processes. To study these mechanisms following a systematic approach, ImmunoSensation2 has put together an interdisciplinary team of immunologists, cell biologists, biochemists and mathematicians. Its translational objective is to develop precise interventions into the functioning of the immune system and thus improve the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Speaker:
Prof. Gunther Hartmann, MD, Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, University Hospital Bonn, University of Bonn
Institutions involved:
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
Quantum computers lie at the heart of the ML4Q Cluster of Excellence, which was founded in 2019 by the University of Bonn, the University of Cologne and RWTH Aachen University together with Forschungszentrum Jülich. The cluster aims to lay the foundations for new computer and network architectures that are based on the principles of quantum mechanics and are more powerful than conventional computers. To this end, it works to analyze and optimize the quantum materials required to create various qubit platforms such as semiconductor qubits, superconducting qubits, topological qubits and Rydberg atoms. The cluster’s researchers are also devising algorithms for fault-tolerant quantum computing and strategies for quantum error correction.
Speaker:
Prof. Yoichi Ando, Solid State Physics, University of Cologne
Speaker in Bonn:
Prof. Dr. Simon Stellmer, Quantum Metrology, University of Bonn
Universities involved:
University of Cologne, RWTH Aachen University
Other institutions involved:
Forschungszentrum Jülich
PhenoRob is Germany’s only Cluster of Excellence that combines the agricultural sciences with engineering. It was established in 2019 and studies new ways of revolutionizing how crops are grown. PhenoRob aims to bring in technology and AI to support crop production while minimizing the negative impact on our ecosystems. Its researchers come from various fields—robotics, geodesy, computer science, agricultural sciences, economics and ecology—and are collaborating on new approaches for making agricultural cultivation more sustainable with the help of cutting-edge technologies. This involves, for example, using AI to train robots and drones so that they can phenotype plants and not only determine their current needs (water, fertilizer, pesticide) but also satisfy these needs in a targeted way. The Cluster of Excellence has already given rise to several market-ready products.
Speakers:
Prof. Dr. Cyrill Stachniss, Photogrammetry and Robotics, University of Bonn
Prof. Dr. Heiner Kuhlmann, Geodesy, University of Bonn
Institutions involved:
Forschungszentrum Jülich
