Press release no. 82/2007 from 2007-10-19

Excellence cluster and graduate schools successful

Research in Kiel, Lübeck and Borstel to receive around EUR 45 million

Earlier today a commission in Bonn decided in favour of the excellence cluster "Inflammation at Interfaces", applied for by the universities of Kiel and Lübeck together with the Research Center Borstel. Two graduate schools from Schleswig-Holstein, the "Human Development in Landscapes" of Kiel University and the Lübeck "Computer Sciences in Medicine and Life Sciences", also qualified.

Germany's northernmost federal state Schleswig-Holstein will thus receive a total of around EUR 45 million more in funding over the next five years. A quarter of this amount will be borne by the Land Schleswig-Holstein, the other 75% will come from the funds of the German federal Excellence Initiative. That means all applications from Schleswig-Holstein have been successful in today's final round.

The Excellence Cluster will investigate how skin and mucous membranes of humans and animals react to processes of inflammation. In this, the University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein will act as a major cooperation partner for the applying universities, allowing them to build on the clinic's body of research in applied life sciences.

The graduate school "Human Development in Landscapes" devotes itself to inter-disciplinary research into the interaction of humans and their environment. Archaeologists, climatologists, social scientists and historians have joined forces in order to tackle the subject with a wide variety of scientific methods: the disciplines involved range from molecular genetics via materials sciences to geochemistry.

The Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences, a spin-off of the University of Lübeck, places inter-disciplinary research between medicine and computer sciences next to the application of computer sciences in life sciences.

Schleswig-Holstein's Minister of Economics Dietrich Austermann: "After last year's victory of our oceanologists, this terrific success forms conclusive evidence of the fact that Schleswig-Holstein ranks among the absolute top in at least two scientific disciplines. I'm confident that today's go-ahead for the 'inflammation research' project will not only result in great progress in the battle against numerous diseases, but also will cause networks to be established with industry. We are enormously proud of our scientists and look forward to expanding the ground we cover in our research by using the granted funds to employ additional scientists."

"We have brought together scientists from Kiel, Lübeck and Borstel", added the minister, "and have provided the support they needed to present their projects in the different stages of the evaluation process." The minister said that this renewed approval by the German Research Foundation should be regarded as an encouragement to strengthen the ties between science and industry.

Austermann called the approved applications for setting up two graduate schools in Kiel and Lübeck another great success for Schleswig-Holstein as a location for science. "We have a clear shortage of graduate schools in Schleswig-Holstein, and today's decision means we are set to make a great leap forward in this field."

The rector of Kiel University and the prorector of the Lübeck University expressed their gratitude to the involved scientists in recognition of their achievement. They also thanked the ministry of science for its support, without which the cluster would have never gathered enough momentum to be successful.

The excellence cluster for inflammation research will comprise some 130 scientists in more than 70 research groups that will concern themselves with the prevention, the causes and the treatment of inflammation diseases. Together they aim to identify the disorders at biological barriers – i.e. the skin and mucous membranes. Research will include neurological and immunological questions, cancer research, nutrition research and genetical adaptations of pathogens. Researchers have been cooperating in the "Inflammation at Interfaces" network for a number of years. Kiel University, for example, did substantial groundwork by establishing the Centre for Molecular Biosciences (ZMB), one of the important research platforms for this cluster.

Professor Stefan Schreiber, spokesman of the cluster, describes its research aims as follows: "The interfaces between body and environment, the body surface and the mucous membranes, protect humans and animals. We want to understand these protective mechanisms and find out what causes pathological disorders. This enormous grant opens up access to other disciplines and basic research and as such enables us to make a giant leap forward not only in terms of quantity but also and particularly in terms of quality.“

The Graduate School "Human Development in Landscapes", that has also been successful in the selection process, cooperates with the Leibniz Institute for Science Education (IPN) and the 'Schloss Gottorf regional museums foundation of Schleswig-Holstein'. Its aim: to provide doctoral candidates with training that is topical and centres on their scientific work on the one hand and is inter-disciplinary, international and practical on the other.

Professor Johannes Müller, coordinator of this graduate school, explains: "The connection of natural and cultural sciences will do much to raise Kiel's profile. Inter-disciplinary PhD theses will spur on progress in fields such as archaeo-informatics and the cultural anthropological interpretation of materialistic culture. We will use the subject of man and landscape to test a wide variety of approaches, and combine methods and mindsets that have been worlds apart until now. The doctorate candidates enrolled at this graduate school will learn to research in completely new ways."

The topics of the new excellence cluster and Kiel's graduate school will prove seminal to other subjects. Today's result shows the importance of the diversity of subjects for Kiel University, which is the only full university in Schleswig-Holstein, and that, in addition to individual high-profile subjects receiving special attention, this diversity should be promoted.

"The new Graduate School for Computing in Medicine and Life Sciences of the University of Lübeck is a huge asset for the Land", says a confident Professor Achim Schweikard. "Protagonists from industry, finance and public institutions will be directly involved in the education of doctoral candidates. Additionally, we are in the process of setting up new research departments for neurotechnology, navigation and robotics on the one hand and for medical structural and cell biology on the other." Every year the school will organise summer academies at partner universities in the Baltic region to enable recruiting highly qualified graduates from there as well.

Both the application for the status of excellence cluster and the graduate school application, one by Kiel University and one by Lübeck University, had made it past the first round of the second application phase in January and had entered the final round along with 39 other applicants for the excellence cluster status and 43 other graduate-school applicants. Of these, 20 excellence cluster applications and 21 graduate schools applications were approved today.

Today's final result is already the second in the competition for excellence. Kiel University's excellence cluster "The Future Ocean" which won in October of 2006 is by now largely established and running. Professor Klaus Wallmann, spokesman for "The Future Ocean", extends his warm congratulations to the scientists from the new projects: "I look forward to cooperating with all of you and I am positive that we can make good mutual use of the synergies our topical fields offer."

Now that both application stages have been concluded, the next opportunity to apply within the Excellence Initiative will be when the first excellence cluster period ends, in four years at the earliest.

For more information click:
www.dfg.de
www.inflammation-at-interfaces.de
www.uni-kiel.de/landscapes


Pictures to the topic:

Excellence Cluster "Inflammation at Interfaces"

Picture 1:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2007/2007-082-1.jpg
3D models as a result of a structural analysis using x-rays: Determining the three-dimensional structure of proteins helps scientists to understand the structural processes at work in processes of inflammation ("How does the key fit the lock?").
Photo by: M. Lindner
Copyright: Inflammation at Interfaces, the Schleswig-Holstein Network in Inflammation Research

Picture 2:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2007/2007-082-2.jpg
Investigating central processes within cell division, important for inflammation, tumor and stem cell research (observed through a fluorescence microscope).
Foto/Copyright: Dr T. Scholzen, Contact for information on this photo to be obtained from the network secretariat.

Picture 3:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2007/2007-082-3.jpg
The FACS device (FACS: fluorescence activated cell sorting; flow cytometry) enables the measurement of relevant cell properties at the level of individual cells, in that it specifically marks the scientifically interesting molecules on the surfaces of cells that play a role in the inflammation reaction.
Photo by: M. Lindner
Copyright: Inflammation at Interfaces, the Schleswig-Holstein Network in Inflammation Research

Picture 4:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2007/2007-082-4.jpg
Proteins are among the key elements of life: they are also of central importance in the excellence cluster "Inflammation at Interfaces"
Photo by: J. Haacks, Contact for information on this photo to be obtained from the network secretariat.


Graduate School "Human Development in Landscapes"

Picture 5:
www.uni-kiel.de/download/pm/2007/2007-082-5.jpg
The excavation and subsequent preservation of old settlements allows research into the interdependencies between man and landscape.
Photo: Kiel University


Contact:

Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft und Verkehr
Harald Haase
Tel. 0431/988-4420, harald.haase@wimi.landsh.de

University of Kiel
Press Office
Susanne Schuck
Tel. 0431/880-3004, presse@uv.uni-kiel.de

University of Lübeck
Rüdiger Labahn
Tel. 0451/500-3004, presse@uni-luebeck.de

Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
Press and Communication Services, Head: Susanne Schuck
Address: D-24098 Kiel, phone: +49 (0431) 880-2104, fax: +49 (0431) 880-1355
e-mail: presse@uv.uni-kiel.de