Collaborative Projects

Our researchers are engaged in national and international projects, actively contributing to collaborative research across scientific subfields. Here we provide an overview of important topic-specific Collaborative Research Centres, Transregios and Research Training Groups, as well as LOEWE research clusters.

CRC 1548 FLAIR: Fermi Level Engineering Applied to Oxide Electroceramics

For electroceramic oxides, a comprehensive understanding of the change in material properties through chemical substitution (doping) is still lacking. The collaborative research center FLAIR proposes to overcome this deficiency by using the Fermi energy as a common parameter to describe the different possible charge compensation mechanisms, which are decisive for material properties. In doing so, FLAIR explores Fermi level engineering as a new avenue towards the design of oxide electroceramics and also provides an advanced understanding of space-charge regions at surfaces, grain boundaries, heterointerfaces.

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CRC 1487: Iron, upgraded!

Iron is a versatile, ubiquitous, cheap and sustainable transition metal with unique properties and high reactivity. Changes in the local environment modulate the intrinsic properties. In most environments, a broad variety of oxidation and spin states is easily accessible. On one hand, this can result in unfavourable or undesirable properties, on the other hand a change in the environment can be used to improve the reactivity in a targeted manner.

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CRC 1361: Regulation of DNA repair & genome stability

The central goal of this Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms that modulate the activities of genome maintenance pathways in the cell. The network brings together experts in structural biology, organic chemistry, biochemistry, molecular and cell biology as well as genetic toxicology and clinical sciences. It makes use of state-of-the-art tools in microscopy, proteomics, genomics, damage detection and quantification as well as a wide panel of DNA repair assays.

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CRC 1245 Nuclei: From fundamental interactions to structure and stars

The Collaborative Research Center SFB 1245 coordinates the work of more than 100 scientists who, based on effective field theories of the strong interaction, investigate the structure of atomic nuclei and the formation of elements in the universe. As one of the most important university centres for experimental and theoretical nuclear structure physics and nuclear astrophysics, the TU Darmstadt combines its outstanding expertise with the top research of the Johannes Gutenberg University in the field of particle physics.

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CRC 902: Molecular Principles of RNA-based Regulation

This Collaborative Research Center (CRC) [or Sonderforschungsbereich (SFB)] investigates Molecular Principles of RNA-based Regulation. In 18 projects more than 80 people from 21 groups in 5 institutions of 3 cities are working together to study the role and potential of RNA to regulate cellular function.

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TRR 270: Hysteresis design of magnetic material for efficient energy conversion

The CRC TRR 270 involves researchers from TU Darmstadt, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Max Planck Institute for Iron Research and Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons (ER-C). Their common goal is the development of new magnetic materials for efficient energy technologies. This requires to gain a detailed understanding of the structural, magnetic and electronic interactions within the material.

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TRR 211: Strong-interaction matter under extreme conditions

How does matter behave under extreme pressure and temperature conditions where atoms overlap and fuse together? Such states of matter can be generated in particle accelerators for extremely short periods of time and provide information about the strong interaction that holds atomic nuclei together. In the cosmos, such extreme states of matter occur when, for example, neutron stars collide with each other. In addition to TU Darmstadt, Goethe University and Bielefeld University are also involved in this project.

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TRR 146: Multiscale Simulation Methods for Soft Matter Systems

Researchers from the fields of chemistry, physics, applied mathematics, mechanical engineering and computer science are working together to develop new methods for multi-scale simulations of soft matter. These include liquids, colloids, polymers, foams, gels and various biological materials whose properties can rarely be understood on one length and one time scale alone.

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International Graduate School Life Science Engineering (LSE)

The primary objective of the International Graduate School Life Science Engineering is to provide an exceptional interdisciplinary research and training programme at the interface of engineering and the life sciences to outstanding PhD students from around the world. The programme aims to cultivate a novel, constructive engineering perspective on biology and to equip students with the skills to tackle biological problems using an engineering approach.

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IRTG 2891: International Graduate School Nuclear Photonics

Nuclear photonics deals with the study and exploitation of photon-induced phenomena at the nuclear-physical energy scale, and is a rapidly developing international interdisciplinary field of research due to recent developments in high-power lasers (Physics Nobel Prizes 2018). It involves the generation of brilliant particle beams with high-power lasers, fundamental research in nuclear physics with photonuclear reactions, and the development of new techniques and methods for their use.

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RTG 2561: Materials compounds from composite materials

In the Research Training Group, novel composite materials are being developed that allow a revolutionary increase in the operating temperatures of combustion engines and processes under extreme environmental conditions (e.g. oxidation, corrosion, erosion) beyond 1300°C. This has high application potential for high-temperature processes in the context of the energy transition. This has a high application potential for high-temperature processes in the context of the energy transition.

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RTG 2128 AccelencE

In the Research Training Group AccelencE early-career researchers are trained in the interdisciplinary field of accelerator science. The focus is on energy recovery linacs (ERLs): A new and still little-researched class of particle accelerators that allow the energy used to accelerate the particle beam to be largely recovered.

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Helmholtz Graduate School for Hadron and Ion Research

HGS-HIRe for FAIR is a joint endeavor of the GSI, the TU Darmstadt and the universities at Frankfurt, Giessen, Heidelberg and Mainz to promote and support structured PhD education for research associated with GSI and FAIR.

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LOEWE Research Cluster: FLOW FOR LIFE

The goal of the LOEWE research cluster FLOW FOR LIFE is to develop an artificial network that transports oxygen and nutrients within lab-grown human tissue of a centimeter size scale. Combining engineering with biological principles, and synthetic with biological materials, the project brings together experts and infrastructure from five engineering and natural science departments at the TU Darmstadt.

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LOEWE-priority: TRABITA – Transient Bindingpockets for Research and Development

Usually, drug molecules bind to specific therapeutic target proteins and thereby regulate their activity. Those proteins remain in their native conformation, however they form transient binding pockets temporarily. Often, drugs targeting these transient binding pockets have higher selectivity amongst other advantages, but on the downsides they are harder to discover.

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DiNaPro – Research project of BMBF

On July 1, 2021, the new research project "DiNaPro – Model-based digitization of sustainable production networks throughout the product life cycle" was launched at the Department of Product Life Cycle Management (PLCM) – formerly Department of Data Processing in Construction (DiK) – under the leadership of Prof. Dr.-Ing. Reiner Anderl together with the Institute of Production Management, Technology and Machine Tools (PTW).

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DFG priority program 2305: Sensor-integrating machine elements

Digitalization offers enormous potential for socially significant innovations, especially if it is made widely accessible. However, the data required for this is often not available in sufficient quantity and quality. In almost every machine there are standardized machine elements such as screws, bearings and gears in the immediate vicinity of the process. It makes sense to integrate sensor systems for data acquisition and processing for various process-relevant measurement tasks right there, i.e. “in-situ”.

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EuProGigant – The lighthouse project for Gaia-X in manufacturing

EuProGigant is a research project carried out by an Austro-German project consortium which aims to build a multi-location, digitally connected manufacturing ecosystem.

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KI4ETA – Artificial Intelligence for Energy Technology and Applications in Production

KI4ETA has set the goal to lead the way towards achieving the CO2-free production of the future. This requires closing the energy efficiency gap, which describes the difference between available technological solutions and actual energy efficiency measures applied in industrial facilities today. KI4ETA will utilize an integrated, platform-based approach based on artificial intelligence (AI) to achieve this. The result of this will be the digitally interconnected, energy efficient, and energy flexible factory.

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KompAKI – Competence Center for Labor and Artificial Intelligence

In the Competence Center for Labor and Artificial Intelligence (AI), partners from science and practice come together to research and directly address topics concerning AI in the world of labor. The goal of KompAKI is application-oriented research on the use and on the potential of AI in the world of labor, as well as the investigation of possible ways to design such AI-based systems and how this will change the world of labor.

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MSCA-DN SynSenso

SYNSENSO is a Doctoral Network (DN), coordinated by Prof. Heinz Koeppl at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, which aims to develop new, groundbreaking combinatorial biosensors. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), SYNSENSO takes an interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approach, bringing together academic and industrial experts in the fields of cell-free synthetic biology and molecular sensor design.

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EU MSCA-DN MetRaZymes

MetRaZymes (Metal-containing radical enzymes) is a Doctoral Network (DN), coordinated by Prof. Nico Bruns at the Technische Universität Darmstadt, which brings together leading European universities to train the next generation of scientists capable of tackling the design, development and implementation of novel enzymatic reactions in a holistic approach.

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EU MSCA-COFUND trainLSE

The "Interdisciplinary and intersectoral doctoral training programme at the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Life Science Engineering" – trainLSE – aims to establish interdisciplinary research and training of excellent international young researchers at the interface between engineering and life sciences.

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