“Research infrastructures reach their full potential when they are shared and further developed. We can only achieve this critical mass if we collaborate on our research infrastructure across Berlin. The Alliance Centers facilitate access to specialized resources throughout the excellence alliance, support early-career researchers, bring together scientific expertise, and create new opportunities for collaboration across institutional boundaries,” says Niels Helle-Meyer, spokesperson for the Berlin University Alliance’s "Sharing Resources" Steering Committee and Vice President for Budget, Human Resources, and Technology at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. “With a total of 10 high-quality proposals, the `Sharing Resources’ Steering Committee - composed equally of researchers and financial experts - faced a difficult selection process. We were impressed by the scientific caliber of all the proposals and by the commitment to collaboration within the BUA. In addition, a large number of non-university research institutes from the BR50 will be associated with the Alliance Centers. This is not only a huge success for the shared use of high-caliber and technically sophisticated research infrastructure, but also underscores the BUA’s strategy for an excellent Berlin research landscape.”

An overview of the five Alliance Centers:

• Alliance Center Electron Microscopy (ACEM): The field of electron microscopy is well-established across Berlin’s research landscape and was successfully developed as an Alliance Center during the first funding phase of BUA. The Alliance Center brings together electron microscopy research laboratories from the four BUA partners. It pools top-tier expertise and lays the groundwork for a shared IT infrastructure. In the second funding period, the consortium aims to expand support for early-career researchers and strengthen collaboration with non-university research institutions.

• Berlin Center for Advanced Spectroscopy (BCAS): The center links spectroscopic research infrastructures and facilitates interdisciplinary consultation as well as coordinated access models for various methods and instruments used to study interactions between electromagnetic radiation (light, heat, X-rays, or radio waves) and matter. A close collaboration with the non-university research institutions of Berlin Research 50 has been successfully established.

• Primary Tissue & Organoid Models (PTOM): Cell lines are often studied in isolation, separate from their natural physiological context. This Alliance Center supports the development of an infrastructure that enables the study of human tissue in its natural context. The goal is to establish a research service chain ranging from access to human tissue through the development and quality control of models to imaging. PTOM’s pioneering approach also helps limit animal testing to what is absolutely necessary, since the tissue and organoid models are generated from human cells.

• Offene Infrastruktur für digitale Präventions- und Interventionsforschung (Open-DPI): The joint research and development infrastructure in the field of mental health combines the technical development of digital health applications with scientific evaluation. A key component is the BUA-wide rollout of the DIRECT software platform, with a focus on psychiatry and psychotherapy.

• Light Microscopy Alliance Berlin (LIMA): The center brings together light microscopy infrastructures and image analysis expertise within a network of excellence. Advisory services will help researchers identify suitable equipment and methods, which will increasingly be shared. Among others, the two Berlin-based Nobel laureates, Prof. Dr. Emmanuelle Charpentier and Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann, have confirmed their participation in this Alliance Center through their respective institutions.

About Berlin University Alliance

Berlin University Alliance – a consortium of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – positions Berlin as one of the world’s leading knowledge- and innovation hubs, where collaboration across disciplines and sectors is deeply integrated. Together, this ecosystem contributes to advancing major global transformations. Berlin University Alliance is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and the State of Berlin under the German Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments.

Further information

• about Sharing Resources at Berlin University Alliance
• about the Alliance Center Electron Microscopy (ACEM)

Media Contact

• Suhana Reddy, Head of Communication of Berlin University Alliance, Email: suhana.reddy@berlin-university-alliance.de

Programme Contact

• Ricarda Keenan, Head of Management Unit „Sharing Resources“ of Berlin University Alliance, Email: ricarda.keenan@berlin-university-alliance.de