Further 25 million for Collaborative Research Centres

German Research Foundation continues funding of the University of Münster’s collaborations on "Imaging inflammation" and "Intelligent matter"

Two Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) at the University of Münster are receiving funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a further four years: a total of around 25 million euros will go to CRC 1450 "inSight: Imaging organ-specific inflammation using multiscale imaging" and CRC 1459 "Intelligent matter: from responsive to adaptive nanosystems".

In the "inSight" CRC, scientists are investigating how the body regulates inflammation in different organs and are developing specific imaging methods for this purpose. In the second funding phase, they will refine and use these methods to analyse inflammation in complex disease models. Their special methodology - "multiscale imaging" - makes it possible to investigate processes in the body using different imaging technologies and to analyse the data obtained in an integrated manner. The methods used range from microscopy to whole-body imaging and capture inflammatory processes in different spatial and temporal dimensions. Researchers from the fields of medicine, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, mathematics and computer science are working closely together to link biomedical and methodological issues. Many of the participants conduct research in the Multiscale Imaging Centre at the University of Münster in a joint infrastructure and pool state-of-the-art imaging technologies. In the long term, the network aims to develop new possibilities for clinical imaging in order to recognise inflammation and assess how effective a therapy is. This may also provide starting points for the development of personalised immunomodulating therapies.

The CRC "Intelligent Matter" is inspired by the vision that synthetic matter could provide artificial building blocks that enable intelligent capabilities. The overarching question is: How does intelligent behaviour arise in a system of nanoscale building blocks that act collectively? In the second funding period, the team wants to advance from adaptive matter to learning matter. Learning ability is realised by integrating memory functions into adaptive matter. The memory functionality is realised through feedback mechanisms with molecular switches and reconfigurable nanostructures. The scientists will develop various learning concepts: from conditioning to artificial neural networks - with applications ranging from reservoir computing (a variant of machine learning) to material learning. They will increasingly integrate several functional elements of intelligent matter into a single nanosystem. The research programme is based on the collaboration of a team from chemistry, physics and related sciences. Through the synergy of experimental work with theoretical investigations and numerical simulations, prototypes of artificial intelligent matter will be jointly developed. A central building is the "Centre for Soft Nanoscience" at the University of Münster, where research groups from the natural and life sciences work with state-of-the-art nanoanalytical methods.

Collaborative Research Centres

Collaborative Research Centres are interdisciplinary research institutions at universities that are funded by the DFG for a period of up to twelve years. They enable innovative and challenging research projects to be carried out. Eight Collaborative Research Centres are currently coordinated at the University of Münster. Researchers at the University of Münster are also involved in many other inter-university Collaborative Research Centres.