22.05.2025 Marburg celebrates double success in Excellence Strategy
Two clusters receive funding in Germany's most important research competition
Could microbes be the key to tackling climate change? And how do human perception and behavior work? With its research on these topics, Marburg is successfully participating in the German government's Excellence Strategy and is making its mark on the map of research excellence in Germany.
In the most important competition for German research funding, the Marburg Cluster of Excellence 'Microbes for Climate' (M4C), a collaboration between the University of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, and the Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM), a collaboration between the universities of Giessen, Marburg and Darmstadt, will receive funding for seven years, starting from the 1st of January 2026. An extension for a further seven years is possible.
”These flagship projects are the result of scientists strategically focusing on important research topics. The Clusters of Excellence will support research teams to find fundamental answers to major questions facing humanity and rewards the efforts made in many areas of the university over the past years. Our sincere thanks to everyone who contributed, particularly those in science, administration and the Hessian Ministry of Science,” says Marburg University President Prof. Dr. Thomas Nauss.
Vice President for Research Prof. Dr. Gert Bange adds: “Together, we have managed to strengthen scientific excellence at the University of Marburg in a targeted manner and at the same time make effective use of the synergies with our partners at the Max Planck Institute and the Research Campus of Central Hessen."
Prof. Dr. Helge Bode, Managing Director of the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, adds: ”I am delighted that the long-standing cooperation between Marburg University and the Max Planck Institute in the field of microbiology has now received such outstanding recognition.”
Bange adds: “The close cooperation with our partner university in Giessen was and is also a key success factor. This collaboration has enabled us to pool our strengths and develop innovative research approaches that have an impact far beyond the region. The Clusters of Excellence are impressive proof of the strategic development of the University of Marburg and its leading role in the Central Hesse science region.”
The Cluster of Excellence „Microbes for Climate“ (M4C)
The climate crisis is essentially caused by human-caused imbalances in the global carbon cycle. Microorganisms play a pivotal role in this process, as they produce and convert billions of tons of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and methane (CH₄), every year. However, they also offer opportunities to convert these greenhouse gases into harmless molecules. Their integral role in natural ecosystems, agriculture, and biotechnologies makes them both part of the climate crisis and a potential key to its solution.
The Microbes for Climate (M4C) Cluster of Excellence brings together researchers who are striving to establish the knowledge base for a balanced future carbon cycle, with the aim of counteracting further global warming.
”At M4C, we are unravelling the fundamental mechanisms through which microbes contribute to the carbon cycle. Using synthetic biology, we are developing more efficient, sustainable ways to convert CO₂. However, we can only develop more efficient alternatives if we understand exactly how these mechanisms are operated by microbial cells and influenced by the environment. Synthetic biology enables us to test pathways that either do not exist in nature or have become extinct. The Cluster of Excellence's duration of at least seven years gives us great flexibility to advance this research in a dynamic manner. We consider this a great vote of confidence,” explains Prof. Dr. Anke Becker. The Managing Director of the Centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) is a spokesperson for the cluster.
Despite converting half of the world's CO2 and thus having an enormous impact on the global climate, microorganisms are underrepresented in research. M4C aims to raise awareness of the importance of these organisms, improve our understanding of their role in the carbon cycle, and utilise and expand their potential through synthetic biology.
”We have a great opportunity here. Throughout evolution, microbes have dramatically altered the global carbon cycle multiple times. We can still trace the history of these events in the sequences of microbial enzymes,” says Prof. Dr. Tobias Erb, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, who is also spokesperson for the cluster. ”New computer-based methods enable us to delve into their genetic past and resurrect long-extinct microbial enzymes in the laboratory. We hope this will help us answer crucial questions: How did CO2-converting enzymes and metabolic pathways evolve? How did certain processes succeed, and what prevented alternative carbon metabolism from developing in a particular environment? We are also exploring undiscovered microbial solutions for CO₂ conversion in extreme habitats and developing completely new ways of capturing the greenhouse gas CO₂ using synthetic biology.”
M4C is jointly operated by Philipps University of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, with their shared centres, the Centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and the Microcosm Earth Centre (MEC). Researchers from Justus Liebig University Giessen and the University of Münster are also involved. The cluster is supported by two LOEWE top professorships and two LOEWE focus areas, Tree-M and RobuCop, as part of the Hessian excellence programme LOEWE (Landesoffensive zur Entwicklung wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz, State Initiative for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence).
The Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM)
The ability to adapt behavior according to the situation is a fundamentally important human characteristic. A disruption of this ability can lead to mental illness. Despite its central importance for everyday life, the mechanisms that allow and control human adaptability are not yet understood. Even the latest artificial intelligence and robotics systems lack this adaptability. The collaboration between Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU), Philipps University Marburg and TU Darmstadt in the Cluster of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind” brings together researchers from psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience with experts in artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics to decipher the universal principles of human adaptability. In the long term, the researchers want to contribute to improvements in the field of mental health, but also to the development of more robust robotic and AI systems.
“We are all in the starting blocks and can hardly wait to finally put our many research ideas into practice and train the next generation of young researchers,” says perceptual psychologist Prof. Dr. Roland Fleming (JLU), one of the spokespersons for the new cluster. “This is a wonderful confirmation of the immense support we have received from the state of Hesse, the universities and our researchers over many, many years.” His JLU colleague and co-spokesperson Prof. Dr. Katja Fiehler adds: “Understanding human behavior is certainly one of the greatest scientific challenges. With the Cluster of Excellence, we will fundamentally change psychological research and rewrite textbook knowledge. We will finally be able to explain and predict human behavior and its enormous adaptability outside of artificial laboratory conditions, in the real world.”
Humans are unbeatable when it comes to dealing with change: The human eye can adapt to the brightness of the environment, whether it's noon on the beach or a moonless night. People don't forget how to ride a bike, even though their bodies constantly change over the course of their lives. And they can handle different liquids - from water to honey.
For robots, on the other hand, such adaptability is still out of reach. Humans react to such changes in circumstances sometimes with stability and sometimes with adaptation. This requires a great deal of flexibility in order to survive in a dynamic and uncertain world.
“But how does the human brain decide which strategy to use when? What is the relationship between stability and adaptation? And what happens if the adaptation process fails?” According to Prof. Dr. Frank Bremmer, spokesperson for the University of Marburg, researchers from various disciplines are investigating these questions in the future Cluster of Excellence. The researchers are interested in deciphering universal principles of human adaptability. The topic is not only relevant to the cognitive and neurosciences and psychology, but also to learning robots and the training of neural networks. The Justus Liebig University Giessen is in charge of the project, with TU Darmstadt and the University of Marburg as co-applicants.
Goethe University Frankfurt and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies are also involved. The cluster is supported by the Hessian excellence program LOEWE with LOEWE top and starting professorships at the UMR, the JLU and the TU Darmstadt as well as the LOEWE centers Dynamic and emergenCITY and the LOEWE focal points Flow for Life and WhiteBox.
Context: Excellence Strategy
The Excellence Strategy is an agreement between the German federal and state governments which aims to provide long-term funding for world-class research, thereby strengthening the international standing of German universities and, consequently, Germany's position as an economic hub. The first funding round of the Excellence Strategy began in 2019. This replaced the Excellence Initiative, which was first launched in 2005/06. From 2026 onwards, the Excellence Strategy's total annual budget will amount to 687 million euros. The central goals of the Excellence Strategy are to promote research excellence in internationally competitive areas, strengthen German universities institutionally, and further develop the German higher education system. To this end, the Excellence Strategy comprises two separate but interlinked funding lines: clusters of excellence and universities of excellence. The selection and evaluation of the clusters of excellence is based on scientific selection procedures. These procedures are carried out on behalf of the federal and state governments by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Science Council. The aim is to promote internationally competitive fields of research at universities and in university networks. In the second funding round starting on 1 January 2026, clusters will receive between 3 and 10 million euros per year. For the first funding phase, which will initially run for seven years (starting in 2019), a total of 57 clusters of excellence were selected.