Dec 4 2007
On 1 January 2008 the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) will establish ten new Collaborative Research Centres, which will receive a total of 74.4 million euros in funding over the next four years, as well as a lump sum of 20 percent to cover indirect costs incurred by the projects.
The new Collaborative Research Centres (SFBs) will address a range of topics, including inflammation of the brain, the distribution of oxygen in tropical oceans, and nanoscopic structures in the macroscopic world. Other topics will include the neurobiological basis for behaviour, managing cycles in innovation processes, and the development of high brilliance lasers and other novel components. Two of the ten newly established Collaborative Research Centres are Transregional Collaborative Research Centres, which are based at more than one location.
At its meeting in Bonn on 20-21 November, the relevant Grants Committee also approved the continuation of 26 existing SFBs for an additional funding period. The DFG will thus fund a total of 259 Collaborative Research Centres as of the beginning of next year. In total, they will receive 403 million euros in funding in 2008, plus the 20 percent programme overhead.
SFB 787 “Semiconductors - Nanophotonics: Materials, Models, Components” aims to develop novel photonic and nanophotonic components from a variety of materials. The researchers, from Berlin and Magdeburg, will combine three complementary areas of research: material science, modelling, and production and characterisation of components. This will allow theoreticians and experimental researchers to collaborate closely in basic and applied areas. Working on this basis, they hope, in the long term, to be able to generate very high frequency and ultrashort pulses with laser diodes and semiconductor amplifiers as well as high brilliance lasers in the infra-red to green spectral range. (Host university: Technical University of Berlin. Coordinator: Michael Kneissl)