A total of 13 new Priority Programmes were established by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschft (DFG, German Research Foundation) Senate at its recent spring session in Bonn, Germany. These programmes leverage scientific expertise (both in Germany and further afield) in particularly current and emerging research fields.
Topics covered by the Priority Programmes range from historical port structures to interactions in bacterial cultures, the stability of glass, and regenerative fuels.
The DFG’s Priority Programmes normally run for six years. The approval of the 13 new Programmes means that the DFG will, from 2012 onwards, be funding a total of 94 Priority Programmes.
The new Priority Programmes (organised by scientific field) and their coordinators are:
Humanities and Social Sciences
- Ports from the time of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Claus von Carnap-Bornheim, The Foundation of Schleswig-Holstein State Museums at Schloss Gottorf, the Schleswig-Holstein State Archaeological Museum
Life Sciences
- Ecology and Species Barriers in Emerging Viral Diseases
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Christian Drosten, University of Bonn
- Phenotypic Heterogeneity and Sociobiology of Bacterial Populations
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Kirsten Jung, The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
- Ultrafast and Temporally Precise Information Processing: Normal and Dysfunctional Hearing
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Jutta Engel, Saarland University
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Eckhard Friauf, Technical University of Kaiserslautern
- THYROID TRANS ACT – Translation of Thyroid Hormone Actions beyond Classical Concepts
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Dagmar Führer-Sake, The University Hospital of Leipzig (an institution under public law)
Natural Sciences
- Probabilistic Structures in Evolution
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Ellen Baake, University of Bielefeld
- New Frontiers in Sensitivity for EPR Spectroscopy: From Biological Cells to Nano Materials
Coordinator: Dr. Marina Bennati, Private Lecturer at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute)
- Chemoselective Reactions for the Synthesis and Use of Functional Proteins
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Christian Hackenberger, Free University of Berlin
Engineering Sciences
- Fuels Produced Regeneratively Through Light-Driven Water Splitting: Clarification of the Elemental Processes Involved and Prospects for Implementation in Technological Concepts
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Wolfram Jaegermann, Technical University of Darmstadt
- Design for Future – Managed Software Evolution
Coordinator: Professor Dr. Ursula Goltz, Technical University of Braunschweig
- Plastic Deformation Joining
Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Peter Groche, Technical University of Darmstadt
- Topological Engineering of Ultra-Strong Glasses
Coordinator: Professor Dr.-Ing. Lothar Wondraczek, Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
- Caloric Effects in Ferroic Materials: New Concepts for Cooling
Coordinator: Dr. Sebastian Fähler, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research Dresden (IFW)
- Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (DFG), Bonn, Germany
