DWI receives approval for an extraordinary item of expenditure
The application of the DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials for a ‘small extraordinary item of expenditure’ was approved by the Joint Science Conference of the federal and state governments. In order to advance and implement various strategic projects at the institute, DWI will receive additional base funding of 2.7 million euros annually starting in 2023. Scientific Director Stefan Hecht and Vice Director Andreas Herrmann are extremely pleased with this fundamental success.
The Joint Science Conference (GWK) has approved funding of the small extraordinary item of expenditure of the DWI - Leibniz Institute for Interactive Materials. For the next ten years, the DWI has set itself the objective of further enhancing its role as an internationally visible materials research institute. The approved special funding will be used to implement strategic measures at the institute that are required to achieve this goal. The core points of the future planning reflected in this include the operation of the Leibniz Joint Lab ‘first in Translation’, the establishment of new working groups at the DWI, and the promotion of junior groups.
The fiT facility is intended to create an infrastructure where knowledge and experience from development, production, approval, and clinical trials can be cumulatively transferred to application-oriented systems in a sustainable manner. After all, the increasing complexity of interactive biomaterials and novel therapeutic modalities requires first-in-human studies to provide solid proof of principle for their effectiveness. In order to expand the competitiveness of academic medical research and the transfer to the healthcare industry, platforms are needed that enable safe and timely studies. The new financial resources will contribute to the realization of these processes.
The combination of Big Data and artificial intelligence is sometimes referred to as the "4th industrial revolution". It helps to analyze, understand, and ultimately to control complex systems. DWI aims to exploit the potential of data-driven simulation to predict materials with specific properties and functions. This is especially relevant for biomedical materials, which interact with living systems and will be applied in the Leibniz Joint Lab. Accordingly, data-driven interactive material simulation will be established as a new key expertise at DWI.
In addition, DWI is the only institute of the Leibniz Association to participate in the Max Planck School ‘Matter to Life’. Its involvement is used strategically to further expand the academic network to leading research groups in this field. In this special program, DWI contributes to the joint education of international students and the promotion of tomorrow's young scientists. In the coming years DWI plans to intensify cooperation within the program and related research.
"We are very pleased with the decision and thank the GWK for their trust," Stefan Hecht and Andreas Herrmann affirm. DWI will thus make an enhanced contribution to increase the region's economic importance in the biomedical sector, to expand scientific excellence through stronger networking, and to improve digitization in the field of materials development.
Wissenschaftlicher Ansprechpartner:
Prof. Stefan Hecht, Ph.D.
hecht@dwi.rwth-aachen.de
Prof. Dr. Andreas Herrmann
herrmann@dwi.rwth-aachen.de