DFG extends funding for two Research Training Groups at the University of Göttingen
The German Research Foundation (DFG) has extended funding for two Research Training Groups at the University of Göttingen. The Research Training Group (RTG) "Sustainable Food Systems" is located at the interface between the agricultural and economic sciences and is being funded with around 5.5 million euros. The RTG "Form-meaning Mismatches" is located in linguistics and is funded with around 4.5 million euros. The second funding period will last four and a half years and will begin in spring and summer 2026 respectively
The goal of a secure global food supply remains unachieved. New and complex challenges are making the path to sustainable solutions more difficult. These include the growing ecological footprint of agriculture, rapidly changing diets and lifestyles, increasing malnutrition and changing public attitudes towards agricultural and nutritional issues. Current global crises - from climate change and geopolitical conflicts to health threats - further exacerbate these problems and highlight the close links between agriculture, the environment, nutrition and society
Against this background, the RTG "Sustainable Food Systems" aims to gain a better understanding of the complex interactions between agriculture, consumption, nutrition, health, the environment and social attitudes. The qualification program enables young researchers from the economic and social sciences to view nutrition and agriculture from the perspective of an integrated food system and to develop innovative solutions. "The international nature of our program and the diverse internal and external collaborations open up excellent opportunities for RTG members to network worldwide and gain valuable interdisciplinary experience," says RTG spokesperson Meike Wollni from the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development
The doctoral students in the Research Training Group "Form-meaning Mismatches" research the systematic assignment of form and meaning in natural languages. They receive a structured, interdisciplinary and international education in linguistics. The focus is on the question of how the meaning of a sentence arises from its words and their order - and to what extent the meaning in turn allows conclusions to be drawn about the sentence structure. while there are clear connections in some areas, the relationship between form and meaning remains largely unexplained in other cases," says GRK spokesperson Hedde Zeijlstra
English, German, Romance, Slavic, General Linguistics, Psycholinguistics and the Human-Centered Data Science group are all involved. Language acquisition, cognitive processing, historical development and variation of languages and sign languages, a central field of research at Göttingen University, are also being investigated
Further information about the two research training groups can be found at www.uni-goettingen.de/de/635183.html and www.uni-goettingen.de/de/635554.html
