Transdisciplinary Research Areas
Spaces for innovation in research and teaching—this is what the six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn provide. They are where top researchers work together across faculty boundaries on key academic, scientific, technological and societal issues relevant to our future.
![Logo_TRAs_all_.jpg](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/logo_tras_all_.jpg/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
The six TRAs
![Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/wurmloch4.png/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation of Complex Systems
How do complex systems work? How mathematical models come together with observational methods, computer-aided simulations and creative flair.
![Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-2/uni_vl_exzellini_voehr_110118_035_72dpi.jpg/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions
How do the various components that matter is made from interact with one another? How do complex structures form on completely different length scales?
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Life and Health
Understanding the complexities of life and coming up with new strategies for healthcare. Find out more about the TRA Life and Health.
![Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-4/2022-05-02_bild-startseite-tra-4.png/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
Individuals, Institutions and Societies
Studying complex relationships between individuals, institutions and societies and developing new perspectives on micro- and macrophenomena.
![Eine Wissenschaftlerin und ein Wissenschaftler arbeiten hinter einer Glasfassade und mischen Chemikalien mit Großgeräten.](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-5/adobestock_288369706.jpeg/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
Past Worlds and Modern Questions. Cultures Across Time and Space
We promote and connect up research into the prerequisites for modern societies, the conditions under which they develop and the processes by which heritage is negotiated.
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Innovation and Technology for Sustainable Futures
The TRA Sustainable Futures explores institutional, research-based and technology-driven innovations for promoting sustainability.
Whether or not a person becomes seriously ill with COVID-19 depends, among other things, on genetic factors. With this in mind, researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, in cooperation with other research teams from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy, investigated a particularly large group of affected individuals. They confirmed the central and already known role of the TLR7 gene in severe courses of the disease in men, but were also able to find evidence for a contribution of the gene in women. In addition, they were able to show that genetic changes in three other genes of the innate immune system contribute to severe COVID-19. The results have now been published in the journal "Human Genetics and Genomics Advances".
Team NimbRo from the University of Bonn took first place at the RoboCup@Home World Championships in Eindhoven. From July 17 to 21, the domestic service robots competed against 16 other teams in Eindhoven, Netherlands. NimbRo achieved the highest score in the tests and also impressed the jury in the final. The assistance robots for everyday environments are being developed at the Chair of Autonomous Intelligent Systems at the Institute of Computer Science. They navigate autonomously, can pick up and place objects and interact with people using a speech dialog system.
The majority of rare diseases have a genetic cause. The underlying genetic alteration can be found more and more easily, for example by means of exome sequencing (ES), leading to a molecular genetic diagnosis. ES is an examination of all sections of our genetic material (DNA) that code for proteins. As part of a Germany-wide multicenter study, ES data was collected from 1,577 patients and systematically evaluated. This made it possible to diagnose a total of 499 patients, with 34 patients showing new, previously unknown genetic diseases. The study thus makes a significant contribution to the initial description of new diseases. In addition, software based on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) was used for the first time on a broad scale to support clinical diagnosis. The "GestaltMatcher" AI system can assist in the assessment of facial features with regard to the classification of congenital genetic syndromes. The results of the study, in which 16 universities and university hospitals were involved, including the University of Bonn, have now been published in the renowned journal "Nature Genetics".
Star-shaped glial cells, so-called astrocytes, are more than just a supporting cell of the brain. They are actively involved in learning processes and interact with the nerve cells. But what exactly is it that astrocytes do? Researchers at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn are using a biophysical model to clarify how astrocytes interact with nerve cells to regulate rapid adaptation to new information. The results of the study have now been published in the renowned journal "Nature Communications Biology".
Transdisciplinary research—realizing a vision
For over 200 years, the University of Bonn has been synonymous with top-level research that has benefited teachers, seasoned researchers and those just embarking on their academic careers.
TRAs and their role in the Excellence Strategy
The University of Bonn’s success in the Excellence contest is down partly to the strong track record of discipline-specific research in its various faculties, which laid the foundations for six Clusters of Excellence—more than at any other university in Germany. However, the University’s six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) also make a significant contribution to its Excellence Strategy. The funding secured since 2019 has been channeled into developing and expanding the TRAs as the mainstay of the University of Bonn’s research profile. They are already having an impact not only within the University itself but also in wider society, in technology and in the political sphere.
Science Festival—where visitors young and old can find out all about the TRA
Representatives of the six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) were on hand to introduce themselves and their work at the 2023 Science Festival, which was all about “hands-on science for everybody.”
Wissenschaftsfestival
New spaces for inter- and transdisciplinary approaches
The basic idea behind setting up the TRAs was that inter- and transdisciplinary approaches will be the only way to meet many of the challenges that the future holds. Besides a strong track record of discipline-specific research, which at universities is traditionally organized along faculty lines, new structural spaces were to be created to encourage transdisciplinary approaches and give them a framework.
The TRAs are now an integral part of the innovative research culture embraced at the University of Bonn. They provide spaces for innovation in research and teaching that are tackling the interdisciplinary scientific, technological and societal challenges of the future. Creating new network structures is helping to promote efforts to set up and expand new research areas that raise the University’s profile. Over the years, therefore, it has developed six areas in which it now boasts outstanding quality. Each TRA is also linked to a Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn.
Openness and cooperation
The TRAs are open to all researchers active at the University of Bonn and its partner institutions who are able to contribute to the specific topics being studied in them. The support that they give to academic and scientific partnerships also makes the TRAs incubators for new collaborative projects, ideas for which are discussed in workshops and lecture series. Financial support has already been secured for new research ideas, open-science initiatives and teaching projects as well as the groundwork for new Collaborative Research Centers and Research Training Groups. Conducting transparent research into and in dialogue with society is a key pillar of the University’s new research profile.
Named after the University of Bonn physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), the Hertz Chairs lie at the heart of our efforts to promote excellence. They are filled with researchers of international repute who are leading lights in their field of expertise and burnish the profile of our Transdisciplinary Research Areas. These professors are based centrally within the University and given the freedom to establish new areas of research, forge links between disciplines and inject significant fresh momentum where they see fit.
![Dominik Bach](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/dominik_bach_07-06-2023_gh__29_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Artificial Intelligence and Neurosciences
Prof. Dr. Dr. Dominik Bach
Within the TRA Life and Health, Dominik Bach is establishing a major new area of focus where the neurosciences meet psychiatry and computer science.
![Prof. Ina Danquah](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-6/ina_danquah_18-09-2023_gh_17_b.jpg/@@images/image)
Innovation for Planetary Health Prof. Dr. Ina Danquah
Ina Danquah investigates the interactions between climate change, nutrition and health. She is Hertz Chair within the TRA Sustainable Futures.
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Life Ethics
Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen
Within the TRA Individuals and Societies, Christiane Woopen is studying four dynamics of our time that are interacting on a systemic level— technologization, economization, ecologization and globalization—as well as the associated processes of transformation.
Clausius Professorship
The Clausius Professorship was established to mark the 200th anniversary of the University of Bonn physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822–1888). It was awarded to a particularly exceptional early-career researcher from the Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions Transdisciplinary Research Area.
![Lena Funcke](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/lena_funcke__14-06-2023_gh__27_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Asst. Prof. Dr. Lena Funcke
Lena Funcke is studying the development of new models and computer-aided calculation methods to tackle the questions that lie at the heart of particle physics.
Supporting researchers at all stages of their careers is one of the main aims of the University of Bonn in its role as a University of Excellence. This is why the Argelander Professorships (named after the University of Bonn astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander, 1799–1875) were set up. These tenure track professorships are specifically intended to help outstanding early-career researchers and enable them to explore and further develop their research interests at the interface between individual disciplines and beyond subject and faculty boundaries.
![Wolfram Barfuss](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/wolframbarfussretuschiert.jpeg/@@images/image)
Integrated System Modeling for Sustainability Transitions
Asst. Prof. Dr. Wolfram Barfuss
Wolfram Barfuss, Argelander Professor in TRA Sustainable Futures, strives to reshape human-environment modeling to identify critical leverage points for sustainability transitions.
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Critical Museums and Heritage Studies
Asst. Prof. Dr. Julia Binter
Julia Binter is a member of the Global Heritage Lab in the TRA Present Pasts. Her transcultural research is paving the way for new partnerships with the natural sciences and theologies.
![Florian Brandl](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/florian_brandl-21-06-2023_gh__24_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Mathematics—Economics and Computer Science
Prof. Dr. Florian Brandl
Florian Brandl’s work in the TRA Modelling and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics combines methods and approaches taken from economic theory, mathematics and computer science.
![Patrycja Kielb](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/patrycia_kielb_22-06-2023_gh__21_web.jpg/@@images/image/leadimagesize)
Biohybrid Research
Asst. Prof. Dr. Patrycja Kielb
By focusing on “bio-spectro-electrochemistry,” Patrycja Kielb’s work is helping to advance molecular science research in the TRA Matter.
![Jacqueline Lorenzen](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/jacqueline_lorenzen_13-06-2023_gh__09_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Sustainability and Environmental Transformation Law
Asst. Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Lorenzen
Jacqueline Lorenzen’s research in the TRA Individuals and Societies is focused on legal issues connected with sustainable urban development.
![Julia Mink](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/julia_mink-20-06-2023_gh__16_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Environmental Economics, Sustainability and Inequality
Asst. Prof. Dr. Julia Mink
Julia Mink is conducting research at the interface between environmental and healthcare economics in the TRA Individuals and Societies.
![Elena Reckzeh](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/elena_reckzeh__07-2023_gh__06_web.jpg/@@images/image)
Organoids and Chemical Biology
Asst. Prof. Dr. Elena Reckzeh
Elena Reckzeh is combining chemical biology and organoid research in order to further expand the “Construction” strand of the research profile in the TRA Life and Health.
![Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz](https://www.uni-bonn.de/de/forschung-lehre/forschung-und-lehre-medien/forschungsprofil-medien/tras/tra-startseite/ivonne_vazquez-armendariz__07-2023_gh__04_web.jpg/@@images/image/relatedsize)
Organoid Biology
Asst. Prof. Dr. Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz
With her expertise in human lung organoids, Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz is adding a new dimension to the research profile in the TRA Life and Health.
Contact
Dr. Ines Heuer
Dr. Eva Drews