Impressions

Scholars and scientists from the three major universities in Berlin and Charité already collaborate very successfully in many projects. In this section we present some of the projects and portray individual researchers.

Knowledge for Everyone

By making scholarly publications freely available online, the Open Access Bureau Berlin supports the three major universities in Berlin, Charité, and other academic institutions in the city state.

University in the City

Until July 30, an exhibition at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin will be showing how academic buildings have shaped Berlin’s cityscape.

Rhetoric Questions

An interdisciplinary team from Humboldt-Universität and Technische Universität is illustrating the challenges faced by speakers in ancient times – including at the Roman Forum.

The Simulated Human

On a new biotechnology and medical technology campus of Charité and Technische Universität Berlin, scientists from both institutions will be working on developing medical models based on the human body.

Satellite Data to Monitor Deforestation

With a project in the Amazon region, geographers from Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin are setting the course for using satellites to continuously observe the Earth.

Researching Islam around the World

The Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies has been educating doctoral students for ten years. The training also includes a focus also on topical issues.

Using Research Expertise to Find Solutions to Everyday Problems

Applicants from Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité- Universitätsmedizin Berlin presented their founding projects to a jury of the Berlin Startup Scholarship.

“We want to make Berlin an even stronger center for research and learning.”

The heads of the three major Berlin universities and Charité spoke on rbb-Inforadio’s WissensWerte series on the opportunities of using national Excellence Competitions to support top-level research in Berlin.

More than Three Dimensions

In a new Collaborative Research Center at Technische Universität Berlin, researchers investigate changes of spatial concepts caused by digitization and globalization.

“Integration is More than a Language Course and a Job”

The importance of values and feelings in integration: sociologists from Freie Universität, physicians and psychologists from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and other cooperation partners are investigating immigration as an emotional process.

The University as a Safe Haven

The Global Congress of Scholars at Risk is being held at Freie Universität Berlin. All three major universities in Berlin are members of the international network which enables threatened scholars a new start in exile.

Learning from the Mealworm Beetle's Immune System

Reserachers from Freie Universität Berlin and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin are working on a device that will help predict the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria.

“A go-it-alone approach to research will no longer work to solve the problems of the 21st century.”

Three Berlin universities along with Charité want to work together in the Excellence Strategy: Opportunities and Challenges / An interview with the heads of the involved institutions.

Of the Economy’s Weal and Woe

Young economists and management scientists have a chance to shape debates in their field as part of a Berlin doctoral program.

A Hackathon to Determine the Transportation of the Future

At the Einstein Center Digital Future, students were invited by an automotive group to develop digital solutions on the theme of Urban Mobility.

Literature and Life

Literary scholar and Leibniz Prize winner Steffen Martus ponders the many connections between literature, academia, and society.

Super Glue – Copied from Mussels

Researchers at the UniCat Cluster of Excellence are developing an adhesive protein that binds things together, even in damp environments. It could be used in future to glue bones and wounds.

Research between Disciplines

Established five years ago, the School of Analytical Sciences Adlershof offers the very best facilities for doctoral candidates in the fields where chemistry, physics, and the biosciences converge.

Helping Shape the Future of Berlin

How might the science-business partnership be made still better? What role could the Excellence Strategy play in this regard? An interview with the presidents of the three major Berlin universities.

The Industrial Heartland of Ancient Civilization

Archaeologist Raphael Eser and geographer Fabian Becker are collaborating on a study on ancient iron smelting on the Tuscan island Elba for their doctorates at the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies.

Neuroscience in Berlin – A Matter of Nerves

10 years of NeuroCure: Dietmar Schmitz, spokesperson for the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence, talks about interdisciplinary cooperation and the translation of scientific findings into new therapies.

“Berlin deserves the best”

15 years of Matheon: an interview on the subject of mathematics for problem solving, the competition for talent, and the future of the Matheon center.

“I am not a refugee. I am a scholar in exile.”

The Turkish sociologist Nil Mutluer holds a Philipp Schwartz Fellowship awarded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

Talking with the German President

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier met with students and researchers who came to Berlin as refugees.

Understanding the Secrets of the Brain

The Sensory Computation in Neural Systems research training group bridges the gap between the single nerve cell and human behavior.

An Archaeologist of the Written Word

An expert in Arabic studies, Beatrice Gründler of Freie Universität advocates a more sophisticated approach to Arabic Islamic culture. In 2017, she was awarded the Leibniz Prize for her work.

Guidelines for the Digital Transformation

The Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin has opened. The aim of its interdisciplinary research team is to seek out ways of securing participation and democratic autonomy in the digital age.

Concerted Efforts

A series of panel discussions at the participating institutions provided opportunities for the three major Berlin universities and Charité to present their joint initiative for the Excellence Strategy.

The Natural Velcro Fastener

Berlin researchers are investigating the principle of multivalence with a view to using it in medical and biotechnology applications.

In the Age of Constant Agitation

Scholars working for the “Affective Societies” Collaborative Research Center are examining how emotion dominates – in politics, the media, and social movements.

The Dark Side of Art

Art historian and Leibniz Prize-winner Bénédicte Savoy tracks down the transnational history of museum objects.

“Complex problems cannot be solved within the limits of a single field.”

Humboldt-Universität’s Excellence Cluster “Image Knowledge Gestaltung: An Interdisciplinary Laboratory” is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

A Bookshelf for Data

In the Edition Topoi, research data can be published for long-term accessability.

Andrea Kühn heads the Movement Disorders unit at Charité’s Department of Neurology with Experimental Neurology. She is a board member for the NeuroCure Cluster of Excellence.

Pacemaker for the Brain

Andrea Kühn, a neurologist, researches and treats movement disorders at Charité.

According to the German Society for Rheumatology (DGRh), five million people in Germany suffer from osteoarthritis. The interdisciplinary research association OVERLOAD-PrevOp is looking for prevention strategies as well as new therapies.

Osteoarthritis – Closing in on a Widespread Medical Condition

Researchers from various fields are jointly working on strategies to prevent osteoarthritis of the knee, decelerate its progression, and find a cure.

The chemist Matthias Drieß, a professor of inorganic chemistry at Technische Universität Berlin, is one of the most important scientists in the management of the UniCat Cluster of Excellence.

Where Chemistry Meets Biology

10 Years of UniCat: Professor Dr. Matthias Drieß, spokesperson for the Cluster of Excellence “UniCat – Unifying Concepts in Catalysis,” talks about the successes achieved over the past decade and the plans for the future.

Georg N. Duda, since 2008 director of the Julius Wolff Institute and a professor of biomechanics and musculoskeletal regeneration at Charité university hospital, is also deputy director of the Berlin-Brandenburg Center for Regenerative Therapies.

Undreamed-of Possibilities in Medicine

Georg Duda, a professor of biomechanics, is a founding director of the Julius Wolff Institute and carries out research into musculoskeletal regeneration.

Florian Tschorsch, the first professor at the newly established Einstein Center Digital Future.

“We study the Internet like other people study nature”

Florian Tschorsch holds the first of 50 professorships at the newly established Einstein Center Digital Future.

In cases of bacterial pneumonia, inflammation of the lung tissue can often be seen on patients’ X-rays. However, research has yet to be done to see what happens in the lungs when they become infected with pathogens such as pneumococci.

Pneumonia: The Underrated Risk

A special research team is looking for answers to unsolved questions on pneumococcal disease.

Researchers at the new German Internet Institute in Berlin will study how digital technology changes society in its many different facets.

Researching the Digital Revolution

Berlin is home to the new German Internet Institute launched by a consortium including Humboldt-Universität, Freie Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin.

Art historian Wendy Shaw says about her work at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, “We are trying to uncover Islam’s rich diversity and its historical manifestations and bring them to the fore.”

Delving into Diversity

At the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, art historian Wendy Shaw looks at manifestations of Islam over time.

Günter M. Ziegler is a professor at Freie Universität Berlin Institute of Mathematics and has launched numerous research collaborations, including MATHEON and the Berlin Mathematical School.

Berlin’s Math Maker

Professor Günter M. Ziegler does research and teaches at Freie Universität Berlin. He sees collaboration between three city universities as the great strength of mathematics in Berlin.

Metropolises like Tokyo change at a rapid and radical pace. An international research training group with roots in Berlin addresses the multifaceted topics that flow into interdisciplinary urban research.

World Revolution in an Urban Space

The world’s metropolises are constantly in flux, undergoing rapid and radical change. As the pioneers of globalization for the past 200 years, they are now the focus of an international research training group that has its roots in Berlin.

Christian Stöcklein and co-founders present their research findings and business model for the GelTouch Technologies project: programmable surfaces that create tactile buttons on demand.

Research, Development, and Testing

Freie Universität Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität, and Charité have joined forces to support research spin-offs with a start-up grant, the Berliner Startup Stipendium.

Modeling the mouse: Partners to the BB3R research platform seek alternatives to animal testing.

How Modern Technology Helps People and Animals

In the BB3R research platform, Berlin universities and non-university institutions work together to develop alternatives to animal testing.

How can communication with voice control systems such as Siri be improved? Facial robots can be used to improve the dialogues through additional interactions such as eye contact or head shaking.

Of Hearsay and Knowledge

Digital networks change our lives and society. A joint computer science and media degree program explores the points of intersection between technology and society.

In her role as a mentor, Professor Dziobek also provides support for young researchers at an early stage in their career.

Once Again, with Feeling

Psychologist Isabel Dziobek does research on empathy training programs at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, an international graduate school at Humboldt Universität.

Swimming for a healthy back: Children and teens with scoliosis have to wear a corset even for sports.

App Helps Patients Manage Back Pain

At the BeMobil innovation cluster, Berlin universities are joining forces to develop a digital coach. The app will make wearing a corset more comfortable for people with scoliosis.

Taken from the air: On the facade of the Mathematics building at TU Berlin, researchers collect data such as air temperature, humidity, and solar radiation.

Something in the Air

A new model is being designed to help cities adapt to climate change. The complex project can only be tackled by a joint research team.