New research training groups at FAU

Young researchers at FAU will benefit from three further awards of funding

Major success for FAU researchers: The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding for two new research training groups (RTG) in fall 2022 and has extended funding for an existing RTG. This means that the DFG is providing around 15.3 million euros of funding for young researchers at FAU who are completing doctoral degrees in the fields of linguistics, literature studies, and applied mathematics.

It also means that FAU is the coordinating university for 13 research training groups and that this year more funding in the first and second funding stages has been awarded to the University than ever before.

The construction grammar galaxy

Construction grammar is a theoretical approach in linguistics based on the assumption that a person’s entire knowledge of language is represented by a network of pairings of forms with meanings, or “constructions”. In the research training group “The construction grammar galaxy”, researchers from the fields of linguistics, psychology and brain research will be examining central aspects of this concept and will demonstrate its use on largely unresearched languages, language stages, and language contact situations.

Prof. Dr. Ewa Dabrowska, Chair of Language and Cognition (Alexander von Humboldt professorship) is speaker of this RTG.

Literature and the public sphere in different contemporary cultures

Under which social, political, economic and medial conditions is literature created? And how does literature affect its surrounding environments? The RTG “Literature and the public sphere in different contemporary cultures” will be examining these questions during its research.

It will be looking at contemporary literature in different languages and cultural spaces since 1945 in view of changing and fragmenting public spheres. This is characterized in particular by the praxeological concept of literature, which includes socio-cultural contexts, political frameworks, institutional arrangements, the literature industry and the literary scene into the analysis.

Speaker is Prof. Dr. Dirk Niefanger, Chair of Modern German Literature with a Systematic Focus.

IntComSin: Interfaces, complex structures, and singular limits in continuum mechanics – analysis and numerics

Over the last decades there has been a considerable increase in requirements for mathematical models, methods and efficient software for prediction, control and optimization in various fields of application such as medicine or materials sciences.

The “IntComSin: Interfaces, complex structures, and singular limits in continuum mechanics – analysis and numerics” research training group deals with all aspects of modeling in order to gain a better understanding of complex phenomena and processes that typically involve interfaces, multi-scale problems and small parameters (singular limits).

The RTG has now received funding for another funding period. Prof. Dr. Günter Grün, Professorship for Applied Mathematics (analysis and numerical methods for partial differential equations) is speaker for Erlangen for this RTG.

Excellent support for young researchers at FAU

FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger: “More research training groups are starting in 2022 at FAU than ever before. 13 RTG have been either approved or extended since 2018. This is not only a major success for FAU, but also a huge asset for our young researchers who can now benefit from this comprehensive funding at the beginning of their academic careers at FAU.”

Science Minister Markus Blume also congratulated FAU on the new funding: “This funding represents recognition from the highest level for the excellent support FAU gives to its young researchers. The University provides the best conditions to top talents for creative research projects. This is something the DFG has made clear by approving two new and providing further funding for one existing research training group. My congratulations to all those involved. Our planned University Innovation Act will ensure that this first class research can be further expanded in future.”