Expert panel of the Excellence Commission announces funding decision
The funding decisions announced today by the DFG's Excellence Commission once again confirm the excellent scientific work carried out at the MPI CEC and its partners. Both the RESOLV cluster and the Fuel & Chemical Science Centre (FSC²) will continue to receive support in the coming funding period.
This means that the MPI CEC will continue to be involved in two clusters of excellence – a strong sign of the national and international visibility of the research conducted at the institute.
In RESOLV (Ruhr Explores Solvation), coordinated by Ruhr University Bochum, researchers are investigating the role and controlling effect of solvents in chemical reactions. The aim is to gain a deeper understanding of molecular interactions. Important pillars of RESOLV with a direct connection to the MPI CEC are electrosynthesis and AI-supported optimisation and prediction.
The Fuel and Chemical Science Centre (FSC²) researches innovative technologies for the production and use of liquid energy carriers and chemical products in order to create a sustainable interface between energy and chemistry within planetary boundaries. Our systematic approach covers the entire value chain – from production to application – and takes into account scientific, engineering, economic and social aspects.
With its participation, the MPI CEC brings its proven expertise and, above all, its fundamental research, which is so important for understanding all processes, to the clusters of excellence. As an institute with a strong interdisciplinary focus, the MPI CEC makes important contributions and, through its infrastructure, opens up attractive career paths for young scientists within the Max Planck Research Groups in collaboration with its partner universities.
The MPI CEC congratulates all partners involved on this great success and looks forward to further collaboration in these two strong research networks!
More about RESOLV
RESOLV brings together over 200 researchers from six institutions in the Ruhr region under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith at Ruhr University Bochum.
Since 2012, a new interdisciplinary field of research has been established in the Cluster of Excellence: Solvation Science. RESOLV has fundamentally changed the conventional view that solvents are merely passive environments for chemical reactions. Instead, the focus is now on an integrated understanding in which solvent molecules are seen as active and central players that can control, mediate and even steer reactions. Chemistry, physics and life sciences interact to paint a comprehensive picture of the role of solvents in physical-chemical and biological processes.
In the coming funding period, RESOLV aims to investigate solvation in more realistic, complex and technologically relevant environments. |
More about FSC2
Creating a world without fossil fuels requires new technologies that produce and use environmentally friendly liquid energy sources and chemical products. These new energy carriers store renewable energy together with renewable raw materials and are particularly helpful in the transport sector, which is difficult to convert to electric solutions. At the same time, ‘defossilisation’ is essential for the production of chemicals that we need for food, health and prosperity.
The Integrated Fuel & Chemical Science Centre (FSC²), a cluster of excellence coordinated by RWTH Aachen University, is researching the scientific basis for technical solutions that combine electricity from renewable sources with raw materials from the air, biomass and waste streams to create so-called ‘bio-hybrid fuels & chemicals’. Examples include products made from a combination of biomass and CO2, or ammonia, which is being investigated as an energy storage medium and chemical building block. FSC² is developing new methods for producing fuels and chemicals in a comprehensive approach that ranges from individual molecules to the entire supply chain. What makes the FSC² Cluster of Excellence unique is its high relevance in the context of global challenges such as climate change, energy supply, chemical production and mobility, as well as its interdisciplinary orientation.
‘Our systematic approach covers the entire value chain – from production to application – and takes into account scientific, engineering, economic and social aspects,’ explains cluster spokesperson Professor Stefan Pischinger. Co-spokesperson is Professor Walter Leitner, Director at MPI CEC. Together with its strategic partners Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion, an integrated research centre is being established in the RWTH profile area ‘Energy, Chemical and Process Engineering’ with five strategic research priorities, offering attractive career opportunities for young researchers. |
