The University of Bremen’s success story continues: Following the recent news that Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) [German Research Foundation] approved all three applications for Research Training Groups and will fund them at the University with 12 million euros, the DFG has now given green light for two new Collaborative Research Centers (CRCs). These will be funded up to the year 2020 in an amount of 19 million euros. The area of Materials Sciences will start the Collaborative Research Center named “Farbige Zustände” [colored states] led by process engineer Professor Lutz Mädler (Faculty of Production Engineering) and funded with almost 10 million euros. In the area of Marine Sciences, the Collaborative Research Center /Transregio titled “Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere and the Ocean” will be under the overall leadership of the University of Hamburg (ca. 9 million euros). In Bremen the leadership lies with Professor Monika Rhein at the University of Bremen’s MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences. Both projects are scheduled to begin on July 1, 2016.
Professor Bernd Scholz-Reiter, Rector of the University of Bremen, commented the success, saying: “This means that within just a few days we achieved a one hundred percent success rate with our DFG applications”. This is a magnificent record and one that the University of Bremen and its partner institutions can deservedly be proud of. Such DFG funding is fiercely contested. “Our outstanding researchers have once again received confirmation that their research is of the highest level”, the Rector said. Such successful collaboration with the University of Hamburg and other partners shows how universities and other institutions breathe life into cooperation on research. The Rector went on to say, “This DFG decision strengthens us in our application under the Excellence Initiative”. The new Collaborative Research Center will intensify the interdisciplinary collaboration at MARUM, which already boasts an excellence cluster. Moreover, the production and materials sciences, especially the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes will receive a boost. It will now submit an application for recognition as a research cluster on new materials and their manufacture.
CRC “Farbige Zustände”:
High-throughput method for developing new structural materials
Whether we’re talking about the turnaround in energy policy or mobility: In the years to come, the demands placed on metallic materials are bound to grow. Their research and development therefore takes on a key role. It is crucial that the properties of materials are adapted to fit future applications. Finding the most suitable alloy compositions and the right arrangement of crystals opens up complex and diverse search spaces. Conventional methods of materials development are obsolete and wasteful. In the past, it was often pure chance that led to the discovery of suitable new materials. Nothing illustrates this better than the century-old history of stainless steel. Using new methods for the recasting , coloring and characterization of microscopic material samples and sample logistics as well as mathematical and computerized processes for analyzing big data, the CRC “Farbige Zustände” led by process engineer Professor Lutz Mädler from the University of Bremen’s Institute of Materials Science (IWT) will be developing an innovative high-throughput method.
In this respect, the method known as “Farbige Zustände” [colored states]enables materials development of an evolutionary kind, breaking completely new ground in the area of alloy and process combinations. Large search spaces can be efficiently covered and materials quickly produced and examined. The aim is to accelerate the development of new structural materials. “We’ve been preparing for the CRC for the best part of three years and we have a highly motivated team”, says Mädler. “Being accepted is a great success for all of us and we can’t wait to implement our research ideas later this summer.” The research team is suitably interdisciplinary, comprising experts from the fields of process engineering, manufacturing technology, materials science, informatics, mathematics as well as planning and logistics.
Besides the Institute of Materials Science (IWT), other areas of the University participating in the CRC are the Research Group Computer Architecture (AGRA), the Bremen Institute of Applied Beam Technology (BIAS), the Bremen Institute for Mechanical Engineering (BIME), the Center for Environmental Research and Sustainable Technology (UFT), and the Center for Industrial Mathematics (ZeTeM). Finally, the CRC team is complemented by a cooperation partner outside Bremen, the Max Planck Institute for Iron Research (MPIE) in Dusseldorf.
CRC/Transregio “Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere and the Oceans”:
The coffee-cream effect and other turbulences
If you’ve ever watched what happens when you pour cream into your coffee, you have some idea of the turbulence that is triggered when the two liquids are mixed. What occurs on a small scale in your coffee cup is similar to what happens in the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Even physical processes on the smallest level exert an effect on global winds and ocean currents – and are of crucial significance for the global climate. Researchers engaged in the interdisciplinary CRC /Transregio “Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere and the Oceans” want to investigate these turbulent processes and wave phenomena to understand them better and improve current climate modeling to produce new models that encompass mit geschlossenem Energiehaushalt. “Despite all the advances we have made, today’s climate models still exhibit mathematical and other inconsistencies that can lead to considerable margins of error when forecasting weather developments, for example”, explains Professor Carsten Eden, spokesperson for the project at the University of Hamburg’s Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN). “Now is the time to bundle the efforts of the various disciplines involved and go new ways in research”.
The project brings together scientists from the areas of oceanography, meteorology, and mathematics. Their shared vision is to arrive at a better understanding and coherent description of how energy is exchanged in our climate system. By so doing, they want to improve the physical and mathematical modeling of ocean and atmospheric phenomena. The CRC/Transregio encompasses projects implemented in Hamburg, Bremen and Rostock. It is being coordinated by the CEN research center at the University of Hamburg. The Bremen oceanographer Professor Monika Rhein from MARUM and the Institute for Environmental Physics represents the University of Bremen in the CRC /Transregio. She contributes her expertise in the areas of experimental marine research. The University of Bremen will also be bringing in expertise from the fields of mathematics and theoretical marine research.
Other partners are Jacobs University Bremen, the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research, Leibniz Institute for Atmospheric Physics and Baltic Sea Research at the University of Rostock, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, and the Helmholtz Center Geesthacht. Seven project leaders representing ten out of a total of seventeen projects encompassed by the CRC are located in the Federal State of Bremen.
What is a Collaborative Research Center?
Collaborative Research centers (CRCs) are among the most coveted DFG-funded programs for researchers working at German universities. CRCs are long-term projects that have to undergo stringent evaluation every four years in order to continue receiving finance from the German Research Foundation (DFG). It is a considerable distinction to be awarded funding over the maximum possible period of twelve years, and it counts as proof positive that the institution in question is especially successful in the thematic area concerned. Currently, together with the new CRCs described above, the University of Bremen is hosting three Collaborative Research Centers under the leadership of professors in the Faculty of Production Engineering. In addition to this, with the new CRC/Transregio the University is participating in two further CRCs. You can find more information under www.uni-bremen.de/forschung/forschung-aus-drittmitteln/foerderungen-der-dfg.html.
For more information on the above article, please contact:
CRC “Farbige Zustände” [colored states]:
University of Bremen
Faculty 04: Production Engineering – Mechanical Engineering & Process Engineering
Prof.Dr.-Ing. Lutz Mädler (CRC spokesperson)
Phone: +49 421 218-51200
email: lmaedlerprotect me ?!iwt.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Claudia Sobich
(PR & Communications)
Phone: +49 421 218 51201
email: sobichprotect me ?!iwt.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
CRC/Transregio “Energy Transfer in the Atmosphere and the Ocean”:
University of Hamburg:
Institute of Oceanography
Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN)
Prof.Dr. Carsten Eden (CRC/Transregio spokesperson)
Phone: +49 40 42838 7623
email: carsten.edenprotect me ?!uni-hamburgprotect me ?!.de
Ute Kreis
PR & Communications CEN
Phone: +49 40 42838-4523
email: ute.kreisprotect me ?!uni-hamburgprotect me ?!.de
University of Bremen:
Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (MARUM) / Institute for Environmental Physics (IUP)
Prof.Dr. Monika Rhein
Phone: +49 421 218 62160
email: mrheinprotect me ?!physik.uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
Ulrike Prange (MARUM Commincations)
Phone: +49 421 218-65540
email: uprangeprotect me ?!marumprotect me ?!.de
