15.06.2012 —

The Universe Cluster has made it to the second round of funding! The anxious month-long wait came to an end today at around 4:00 p.m. when the Federal Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan, announced at a press conference held by the German Research Foundation (DFG) which new and existing Clusters of Excellence had been approved for the next five years.

“Our Cluster has proved to be an outstanding success over the past six years, and scientists from various fields and institutions have joined forces to work on interdisciplinary projects. Based on this outstanding foundation, the future concept of Universe can now become reality, and can drive forward cutting-edge research in Germany even further until 2017,” explain Prof. Stephan Paul and Prof. Andreas Burkert, who head the Universe Cluster.

Since 2006, the Universe Cluster has been conducting research in a globally-unique research partnership from the Physics Faculties of the TU München (TUM) and the Ludwig Maximilians Universität (LMU), the Max Planck Institutes for Physics, Astrophysics, Plasma Physics and Extraterrestrial Physics, and the European Southern Observatory to uncover the secrets of the universe. The main focus is on the physical links between the microcosm and the macrocosm.

The Universe Cluster brings together around 250 astrophysicists, nuclear and particle physicists with backgrounds in both theory and experiment. The scientists work in seven research areas, deciphering the innermost structure of matter, space and time, the nature of the fundamental forces, and the development, geometry and composition of the universe. Work on the key aspects is conducted as part of international cooperation arrangements at the world’s largest research institutions, including CERN and the Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Over the next five years, the Universe Cluster scientists can now build on the outstanding work and achievements of the first six years. The expansion and focus of the research fields, along with further networking of the various disciplines, will receive special emphasis. The possibility for interdisciplinary utilization of data from particle physics and astrophysics and the use and completion of the newly-created research infrastructure form an exceptional springboard for the Cluster scientists. In this second round of funding, comprehensive new findings on standardizing the four forces, on Higgs particles, physics beyond the standard model, the nature of dark matter and dark energy, as well as the formation of the chemical elements, stars and galaxies are anticipated.

New core elements of the Universe Cluster will be two interdisciplinary facilities. In cooperation with the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ), C²PAP, a computer-aided center for particle physics and astrophysics, is being established. At this worldwide-unique facility, scientists from the Universe Cluster can jointly process data from different satellite missions and experiments in particle physics and astrophysics, and combine it with data from computer simulations over wide frequency and energy ranges.

The Munich-based Institute for Astrophysics and Particle Physics, ^MIAPP, will in future hold six workshops a year with selected international experts. ^MIAPP is a central, interdisciplinary center for international scientific exchange which, firmly anchored in the outstanding scientific environment in Munich, represents a superb platform for the development of new visions.  

Today’s positive decision will now also make it possible to reinforce cooperative efforts with schools and expand the advanced training of teachers. The public will be able to share in the growing understanding of the development of the universe through numerous scientific events, as well as through exhibitions at the Deutsches Museum.