Funding by state ministries

Terahertz.NRW network

A pen to diagnose skin cancer, a sensor integrated into a cell phone to analyze viruses, bacteria and gases - the members of the terahertz.NRW network can imagine this and much more based on terahertz (THz) radiation. The available bandwidth is enormous; however, its use has so far been limited to laboratory set-ups. The network partners, who have been working together successfully since 2017, want to change this. The central goal of the network is to tap into the potential of miniaturized electronic and photonic THz circuits, in which the network partners are among the world leaders, for communication, localization, material characterization, medical technology and environmental monitoring.

The network aims to close the gap between established, basic, scientifically excellent research and innovation-driven economic development with considerable potential in the long term. Further projects are to be initiated from within the network.

Website of the network

Cultures of compromise

Life is not possible without compromise - but how can such an agreement be reached? What are the prerequisites? Where do compromises have their limits? An interdisciplinary research team from the three universities of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), Münster (WWU) and Bochum (RUB) is investigating these questions. The spokesperson for the project participants at RUB is Prof. Dr. Constantin Goschler from the Institute of History. The project will start at the beginning of November 2021 and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia with 2.1 million euros for three years. The three universities are pooling their expertise to establish a long-term field of research.

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Artificial intelligence sharpens the view into space

In their search for distant galaxies, rapidly rotating neutron stars and black holes, radio astronomers are collecting an ever-increasing amount of data. In future, this flood of data is to be analyzed with the help of artificial intelligence. To this end, eight institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia have joined forces under the leadership of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) to form the "NRW Cluster for Data-Intensive Radio Astronomy: Big Bang to Big Data". The team from the Chair of Astronomy at Ruhr-Universität Bochum led by Prof. Dr. Ralf-Jürgen Dettmar is also involved. The project will be funded with up to three million euros over the next three years as part of the NRW funding program "Profilbildung 2020".

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