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Collaborative Research Centres to receive additional 25 million in funding

German Research Foundation (DFG) continues its support of the University of Münster's collaborations on “Imaging inflammation” and “Intelligent matter”

Two Collaborative Research Centres (CRC) at the University of Münster will be receiving funding from the German Research Foundation (DFG) for another four years. A total of around 25 million euros will go to CRC 1450 “inSight: Multiscale imaging of organ-specific inflammation” and CRC 1459 “Intelligent matter: From responsive to adaptive nanosystems”.

In the CRC “inSight”, researchers are investigating how the body regulates inflammation in different organs and are developing specific imaging methods for this purpose. In the second funding period, they will refine and apply 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 applied methods range from microscopy to whole-body imaging and serve to 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 at the Multiscale Imaging Centre of the University of Münster in a joint infrastructure which bundles state-of-the-art imaging technologies. In the long term, the network aims to develop new possibilities for clinical imaging to better recognise inflammation and assess the effectiveness of various therapies. This may also provide the basis for developing 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 aims to advance from adaptive matter to learning matter. Learning ability is achieved by integrating memory functions into adaptive matter. The memory functionality is realised through feedback mechanisms with molecular switches and reconfigurable nanostructures. The researchers will develop various learning concepts – from conditioning to artificial neural networks – and 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 the result of joint collaboration between researchers from the areas of chemistry, physics and related sciences. Through the synergy of experimental work with theoretical investigations and numerical simulations, the team aims to develop prototypes of artificial intelligent matter. The “Centre for Soft Nanoscience” at the University of Münster serves as the central facility where research groups from the natural and life sciences work with state-of-the-art nanoanalytical methods.

Collaborative Research Centres

Collaborative Research Centres (CRCs) are interdisciplinary research institutions at universities that are funded by the DFG for a period of up to twelve years. They provide a platform for larger-scale collaboration on innovative and challenging research projects. Eight CRCs are currently coordinated at the University of Münster. Researchers at the University of Münster are also involved in many other inter-university CRCs.

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