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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
A major success for Technical University of Darmstadt: two of its research projects will receive funding as Clusters of Excellence. The Excellence Commission in the competition for the prestigious Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments selected the proposals ‘Reasonable Artificial Intelligence’ (RAI) and ‘The Adaptive Mind’ (TAM) from the fields of artificial intelligence and cognitive sciences for funding. The commission consisted of an interdisciplinary panel of experts and the federal and state ministers responsible for science.
A total of 98 projects were submitted to the German Research Foundation, 70 of which will now be able to call themselves ‘Clusters of Excellence’.
‘I warmly congratulate our colleagues at RAI and TAM on receiving funding as Clusters of Excellence. This is an outstanding success for us at TU Darmstadt,’ said TU President Professor Tanja Brühl. "Thank you very much for your passionate commitment in preparing the full applications and during the review process. I would also like to thank the many colleagues involved in science support at TU Darmstadt and at our partner institutions. The success of two projects in the extremely competitive Excellence Strategy process is only possible through joint efforts – it is an impressive team achievement. Together, we will now realise the inspiring visions of RAI and TAM."
‘The approval of these projects is a clear sign of TU Darmstadt's research strength with regard to our strategic research profile in the field of Information & Intelligence,’ said Professor Matthias Oechsner, Vice President Research. "This success is an expression of our self-image: committed cooperation and close networking characterise our work. Interdisciplinary collaboration creates real added value and, thanks to the diversity of scientific perspectives, leads to innovative solutions for the major challenges of our time. Together with our strong partners, we not only conduct excellent basic research, but also work on pioneering applications for tomorrow. The funding of these two projects will also significantly strengthen Hesse as a centre of science. We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Hessian state government for its sustained support of our Cluster of Excellence projects. In doing so, it is expanding the strong foundation for cutting-edge research in Hesse and enabling forward-looking developments.‘
President Brühl regretted that the ’CoM2Life" project from the field of biomaterials, which was also submitted by TU Darmstadt in the competition, was not selected for funding.
‘It is regrettable that we were not successful with our third project in the final round of the Excellence Competition. At the same time, I am confident that we will be able to convince in other formats with the visionary ideas and powerful solutions that this project also advances for crucial future topics.’
The ‘Reasonable Artificial Intelligence’ (RAI) Cluster of Excellence
The RAI Cluster of Excellence, under the leadership of the Technical University of Darmstadt, is dedicated to the development of a new generation of AI systems based on the reasonable use of resources, data protection standards and continuous improvement. Multidisciplinary teams are working together in four research areas to shape the future of AI. Although deep learning has enabled important advances in the field of artificial intelligence 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. The aim of the Cluster of Excellence project “Reasonable Artificial Intelligence” (RAI) is thus to develop the next generation of reasonable AI.
Applicant university: TU Darmstadt
Institutions of the participating scientists: Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Bremen, University of Tübingen, Saarland University
More about RAI: https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/universitaet/aktuelles_meldungen/einzelansicht_50656...
The Adaptive Mind (TAM) Cluster of Excellence
Researchers from institutions such as the Centre for Cognitive Science at TU Darmstadt will contribute their expertise in the fields of cognitive science and artificial intelligence to this research cluster. In “The Adaptive Mind” the researchers will investigate how human behaviour is impacted by changing external conditions – with humans remaining stable in some situations and adapting in others. A key question being investigated by the research cluster is how to balance these two strategies in adaptive and learning systems. The aim is to develop new approaches for how we can understand human perception, thought, decision-making, actions, and learning using computational models. This topic is relevant for many academic fields – such as cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, research on learning robots, and the training of neural networks.
Applicant universities: Justus Liebig University Giessen, Philipps University Marburg, TU Darmstadt
Participating institutions: Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS)
More about TAM: https://www.tu-darmstadt.de/universitaet/aktuelles_meldungen/einzelansicht_50662...
The Excellence Strategy is a funding programme launched by the German federal and state governments to strengthen top-level research in Germany. To receive funding, applicants must undergo a highly competitive, multi-stage selection process. In the second round of the Excellence Strategy, a decision has just been made on which new Clusters of Excellence will be established and which of the Clusters already established in the first round will receive further funding. The federal and state governments will provide a total of €539 million per year for seven years starting in 2026. The universities in Hesse submitted a total of seven full applications, five of which are based at one of the Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU, the strategic alliance of the universities of Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Mainz) or were developed with RMU participation.
In addition to TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz from the Rhine-Main Universities Alliance were also successful and were able to secure three Clusters of Excellence between them.
‘My sincere congratulations to our colleagues at Goethe University Frankfurt and JGU Mainz, who will now also be able to implement their Cluster of Excellence projects,’ said TU President Brühl. "United in a strong alliance, we combine different perspectives to create new ideas and creative solutions for a challenging present. As Rhine-Main-Universities (RMU), we are continuing on our path towards applying for designation as a University of Excellence network."
The next step for the three Rhine-Main-Universities will be to jointly apply for funding in the Universities of Excellence funding line. With a total of five Clusters of Excellence, at least one of which is led by Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz or TU Darmstadt, the Rhine-Main-Universities meet the requirements for this.
The Rhine-Main-Universities, which have formed an alliance for ten years, are combining their complementary profiles to create new cutting-edge research, promoting disciplinary excellence and living interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary cooperation – inspired by the distinctive character of the Rhine-Main region.
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