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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Huge success for the TU Darmstadt: In the Excellence Strategy from the German federal and state governments, TU Darmstadt has reached a milestone. It has been selected and invited to prepare full applications for the outline proposals “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence”, “The Adaptive Mind” and “CoM2Life” in fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science and biomaterials and submit them for funding as part of the Cluster of Excellence funding line.
The selections were made by an international panel of experts. A total of 143 outline proposals were submitted to the German Research Foundation (DFG), of which 41 have now been invited to submit full applications for the second round of the Excellence Strategy funding programme.
“I would like to warmly congratulate my colleagues in RAI, TAM and CoM2Life for achieving this important milestone on the path towards establishing a Cluster of Excellence,” says TU President Professor Tanja Brühl. “Thank you for your outstanding commitment and dedication when preparing the outline proposal and during the assessment process. I would also like to express my thanks to the many colleagues at TU Darmstadt and our partners who were involved in the process in a supporting capacity. The selection of three outline proposals in the extremely competitive Excellence Strategy is a fantastic success for TU Darmstadt and above all a team success. We will now work tirelessly together to prepare the full application so that we are also successful in the next stage of the process and can ultimately establish Clusters of Excellence.”
“The invitation to submit full applications for three outline proposals is a fantastic success for TU Darmstadt and recognition of the strength of our research across various research fields,” says Professor Matthias Oechsner, Vice President for Research. “This achievement demonstrates that active collaboration and close networking are key to our success. We are committed to collaborating and networking with our scientific partners – at other universities and also non-university institutions. We are convinced that interdisciplinary research into scientific questions will deliver real added value and that this broad range of perspectives will produce innovative solutions. These successful projects will also strengthen Hesse as a hotspot for science. Therefore, we would also like to thank the Hesse state government for their support within the “cluster project” funding line.”
The president expressed her disappointment that the other two outline proposals that were submitted in the fields of energy transition and nuclear physics were not selected for the full application stage. “Regrettably, our other projects were not as successful in this competitive process,” says Brühl. “At the same time, I am certain that the pioneering and innovative ideas that we plan to develop in our projects will receive appropriate recognition in other funding formats.”
The Excellence Strategy is a funding programme of the German federal and state governments to strengthen cutting-edge research in Germany. Projects must overcome a highly competitive, multi-stage selection procedure in order to receive funding. TU Darmstadt has now been invited to submit full applications to establish Clusters of Excellence for the projects “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence” (RAI), “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM) and CoM2Life in the next stage of the process. The project CoM2Life is being carried out jointly with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. The decisions on which projects can establish new Clusters of Excellence and which existing clusters that were set up during the first round of proposals will receive continued funding will be made in May 2025. Funding can be provided to a total of up to 70 Clusters of Excellence and the German federal and state governments provide total funding of 539 million euros per year for this purpose.
The Rhine-Main science region and the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) – an alliance between TU Darmstadt, the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz – will also benefit from this decision.
Planned Cluster of Excellence “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence” (RAI)
Although deep learning (DL) has enabled important advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) over the last ten years, current AI systems have displayed some significant weaknesses, such as an inability to reason, difficulty handling new situations and a need for continuous adjustments. Last but not least, current AI systems also require substantial resources. Therefore, the planned Cluster of Excellence “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence” (RAI) aims to develop the next generation of reasonable AI: AI systems that learn with a “reasonable” amount of resources, a “reasonable” quality of data and in accordance with “reasonable” data protection standards. They will have a healthy dose of common sense, possess the ability to handle new situations and contexts and be based on reasonable training paradigms that will enable continuous improvement, interaction and adaptation. RAI is part of the research field “Information and Intelligence” (I+I) at TU Darmstadt.
University submitting the application: TU Darmstadt
Participating institutions: Julius Maximilian University Würzburg, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Bonn
Planned Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM)
The project “The Adaptive Mind” aims to understand the fundamental processes behind human perception, thought and behaviour that allow us to adapt to constantly changing conditions. The collaboration between the Justus Liebig University Gießen, Philipps University Marburg and TU Darmstadt brings together researchers from the fields of psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience with experts in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and robotics to decode the universal principles behind human adaptability. The findings from the project will be integrated into computer models that can imitate, predict and explain both the spectacular successes and also tragic limits of the human mind – and will also have an impact on basic research, mental health and the development of safe AI and robot technology. TAM is part of the research field “Information and Intelligence” (I+I) at TU Darmstadt.
University submitting the application: Justus Liebig University Gießen
Participating institutions: TU Darmstadt, Philipps University Marburg, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS)
Planned Cluster of Excellence “CoM2Life”
CoM2Life aims to develop a radical new generation of soft biomaterials based on the principles of living systems and enable continuous and bidirectional communication with biological systems. This research should pave the way for revolutionary advances in medical research, including the development of materials for interactive cancer immunotherapy and tissue regeneration, as well as the development of alternatives to animal testing and the engineering of artificial organs. CoM2Life is a synergistic collaboration between JGU Mainz, TU Darmstadt and the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and brings together excellence in the natural sciences with expertise from the communication sciences in order to also combat the challenge of misinformation in this highly innovative field of research. CoM2Life is part of the research field “Matter and Materials” (M+M) at TU Darmstadt.
Universities submitting the application: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, TU Darmstadt
Participating institutions: Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Mainz
About the excellence strategy of the federal and state governments
To further strengthen the international competitiveness of research at German universities, the federal and state governments have established the Excellence Strategy as a funding programme. The key objective of the Excellence Strategy is to strengthen top-level research in areas that are internationally competitive, to institutionally strengthen German universities, and to advance the development of the German higher education system.
To this end, the Excellence Strategy comprises two separate but intertwined funding lines. The “Clusters of Excellence” funding line, coordinated by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG) provides project-based funding for internationally competitive research areas at German universities. The “Universities of Excellence” funding line, coordinated by the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat – WR), is designed to fund institutional strategies that promise to strengthen universities as a whole and create outstanding framework conditions for excellent research.
About TU Darmstadt
TU Darmstadt is one of Germany’s leading technical universities and a synonym for excellent, relevant research. We are crucially shaping global transformations – from the energy transition via Industry 4.0 to artificial intelligence – with outstanding insights and forward-looking study opportunities.
TU Darmstadt pools its cutting-edge research in three fields: Energy and Environment, Information and Intelligence, Matter and Materials. Our problem-based interdisciplinarity as well as our productive interaction with society, business and politics generate progress towards sustainable development worldwide.
Since we were founded in 1877, we have been one of Germany’s most international universities; as a European technical university, we are developing a trans-European campus in the network, Unite! With our partners in the alliance of Rhine-Main universities – Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz – we further the development of the metropolitan region Frankfurt-Rhine-Main as a globally attractive science location.
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