“During the last weeks and months, we have joined all our forces in order to succeed in the Excellence Initiative by the German Federal and State Governments. The fact that we have now achieved this goal and find ourselves among the German “elite universities” is the appropriate reward for one of the most dynamic universities in Germany, for our outstanding members of staff and for our convincing Institutional Strategy. It is a clear sign that our work is being recognized!”, said Prof. Müller-Steinhagen, Rector of the TU Dresden (TUD), in a first happy reaction to today’s decision.As announced earlier this day, TUD is one of eleven universities that were identified as an “elite university” within the second programme phase of the Excellence Initiative.

TUD has succeeded in all funding lines with all its four proposals: Together with the Institutional Strategy both proposals for Clusters of Excellence, i.e. the [Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden (cfAED)] and the [Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD)] , as well as the [Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering (DIGS-BB)] were approved.

The Rector thanked all the members of the university for their unlimited and continuous support and emphasized the fact that the Institutional Strategy called The Synergetic University will at the same time be the strategy for the development of the university for the coming years.

“With the help of the Excellence Initiative funding TUD now also has the opportunity to become one of the most renowned universities on an international level, and I promise that we will seize this opportunity! Instead of simply awaiting today’s decision, we have already worked intensively on the implementation of our strategy during the past months.”

It is the main goal of all the measures listed in the Institutional Strategy to attract the best scientists and scholars, staff and students from all over the world. Among other steps, the university will establish an innovative procedure for professorial appointments, tailor-made programs further to qualify outstanding students and junior scientists as well as a Graduate Academy. Moreover, optimized support will be provided for the whole university by state-of-the-art IT-systems and reorganized administrative structures. In addition, the research alliance of “DRESDEN-concept” will be further intensified in order to enhance synergies between the university and the non-university research institutions. The Free State of Saxony will accompany and substantially support TUD on its way.

Information for journalists:
Press office of the TU Dresden
Kim-Astrid Magister
Phone 0351 463-32398
pressestelle@tu-dresden.de
http://tu-dresden.de/exzellenz/index_html/newsboard_view?set_language=en

“Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden” (cfAED)
What an achievement! The application for the Cluster of Excellence ‘Center for Advancing Electronics’ (cfAED) was successful.

‘After days of tension and excitement it fills me with great pride to announce that our application was successful. This is a great opportunity for the cfAED Team as well as for Saxony to grow as the European hub for microelectronics.’ – says Professor Gerhard Fettweis, co-ordinator of the Cluster of Excellence ‘cfAED – Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden,’.  He is delighted about today’s decision of the Excellence Initiative Grants Committee. ‘I would like to express my sincere thanks to the rectorial board of the University and to the Free State of Saxony for their continuous support of the application, as well as our internal assessors, all participating institutions and the supporters from local and international industry.  Through our concept, research in Saxony builds on its strength of the united excellence of an exceptional University of Technology and of outstanding non-university research institutes.  With the help of the Cluster of Excellence, fundamental research in Saxony, the place where Europe’s largest hub for microelectronics has evolved, will experience another upswing. The foundations for this success had already been laid with the work of the Leading-Edge cluster Cool Silicon as well as the only Collaborative Research Center (CRC) for Electrical Engineering in Germany – the CRC 912 ‘Highly Adaptive Energy-Efficient Computing’.

The world has changed during the past nine months since the submission of the application and the research landscape of Dresden has further developed (for example with the kick-off of the Young Investigators Groups ‘3D Chip Stack Intraconnects’ and ‘NANONET – International Helmholtz Research School for Nanoelectronic Networks’).  The Cluster will commence its work with the ‘cfAED Research Festival’ in September to update its research agenda and to prepare for the official start on 1st November, 2012. At the same time, building work will be undertaken to ensure the Cluster’s accommodation. 
‘On a personal note I would like to thank all cfAED team members who contributed to this achievement’, states Professor Fettweis.

About cfAED – Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden
The Cluster of Excellence ‘Center for Advancing Electronics Dresden’ (cfAED) addresses the advancement of electronic information processing systems.  These form the basis for Information and Communication Technology – the major driving force for innovation in almost all industrial sectors - which has significantly shaped the world we live in today. By the year 2020, today’s predominant CMOS technology will have reached physical boundaries.  Therefore, scientists around Professor Gerhard Fettweis in Dresden are breaking new and previously unknown ground.  To achieve the Cluster’s visions and goals and to actively support the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas, a total of nine teams are looking for solutions and new approaches. These nine ‘Research Paths’ range from silicon-nanowires and organic electronics to chemical mathematics and integrate discovery-driven natural sciences and innovation-driven engineering, comprising research from materials to large-scale heterogeneous information processing systems. To maximize success and enable fruitful cross-fertilization, the cluster will follow a ‘more-shots-on-goal’ approach by pursuing multiple, interconnected ‘Research Paths’ reflecting the distinguished research competence of cfAED and Technische Universität Dresden. The cluster brings together teams of 57 researchers from TU Dresden as well as TU Chemnitz, the Leibniz Institutes IPF and IFW, the Max-Planck Institutes CBG and PKS, the Fraunhofer Institutes IZFP and ENAS (Chemnitz), and Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf from the areas of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Mathematics. The cluster is uniquely positioned in Dresden as the strong research activities in micro-/nanoelectronics, materials and natural sciences, and electronic systems engineering at TU Dresden and its DRESDEN-concept partners have evolved over the last years. The Dresden region is the largest microelectronics hub in Europe. The planned research is thus of major strategic importance for the region, as highlighted by the commitment of local industry to endow an additional new professorship for cfAED.

Information for journalists:
Prof. Gerhard Fettweis
Phone 0351 463-41000
Gerhard.Fettweis@vodafone-chair.com

CRTD approved as Cluster of Excellence and DFG Research Center
Dresden’s research center again receives research funds from the excellence initiative

Dresden. The Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden (CRTD) has successfully passed the third phase of the excellence initiative. The Cluster of Excellence of the TU Dresden (TUD) and the Research Center of the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” (DFG) – the CRTD has qualified to keep these two titles and will be continuously funded for the coming five years. This was confirmed today by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research as well as the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft” together with the German Council of Science and Humanities.

With today’s confirmation, the CRTD can celebrate twice: not only was the research institute able to achieve the title of an Cluster of Excellence of the TUD for the second time, it is also financed for a third funding period as DFG Research Center by the DFG for the next 5 years. “This large-scale project, funded with more than 40 million Euros, will accomplish significant scientific progress in the areas of biomedicine/biotechnology in the coming years and will further strengthen the TU Dresden’s excellent international reputation,” says the Rector of the TUD, Prof. Hans Müller-Steinhagen.

“We are very proud that the CRTD again has asserted itself in the excellence initiative,” says Professor Michael Brand, Director of the CRTD. „Both awards confirm our aim to consistently build and extent the CRTD to become a worldwide renowned biomedical research institute with excellent international scientists”. Not only the 260 employees in the core-institute have added to this success story but also the 90+ employees in the seven separate institutes in Dresden that belong to the CRTD’s interdisciplinary network. Professor Brand continues: „It is our aim to study the capacity for regeneration of the human body and to develop entirely new regenerative therapies for so far incurable diseases. With the recent move into the new modern building, we now have the necessary premises to host more than 400 employees from about 32 nations to do research, to work and teach“.

The center’s research focus is on hematology/immunology, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases as well as bone and cartilage replacement. Currently, six professors and nine research group leaders work at the CRTD. Due to the CRTD structure, their results can quickly be transferred from basic research into to clinical applications. Additionally, the CRTD professors teach the new generation of scientists in the “International Master's Program in Regenerative Biology and Medicine“ and in the international PhD programs of the TU Dresden.

In the coming five years, the CRTD wants to advance the patient-specific stem cell research and standardize projects and processes in research and teaching. Among others, the research focus on neurodegenerative diseases of the retina such as macular degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa will be extended. Into the new funding period falls the equally DFG-funded expansion of the cross-institutional technology platforms in microscopy and in clinic-compliant cell manufacturing, which provides professional development, production and therapeutic applications of novel cell and tissue therapies, tissue engineering products as well as support in pharmaceutical legislation to internal and external users. Translationally working preclinical and clinical research groups will thereby be closely linked and synergistically combine the expertise of several partners at the highest level and with state-of-the-art equipment at the Dresden Campus.

Press contact:
Birte Urban-Eicheler
Press Officer DFG Research Center for Regenerative Therapies Dresden – Cluster of Excellence of the TU Dresden
Phone: 0351  458-82065
birte.urban@crt-dresden.de
http://www.crt-dresden.de  

The Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering (DIGS-BB) again awarded in the German Excellence Initiative

The Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering (DIGS-BB) stands for excellent research opportunities and training for PhD students at an outstanding level in Dresden. The tight interaction of the university with the local non-university partner research institutions represents the paradigm for the nationwide known DRESDEN-concept alliance. The performance of the DIGS-BB during the last six years and the proposed new measures for another funding period were recognized today: it was announced that the Graduate School is again among the successful projects awarded by the German Excellence Initiative.

Since its foundation in 2006, upon being awarded in the first round of the Excellence Initiative, the DIGS-BB has developed a worldwide renowned international PhD program. The interdisciplinary working groups address scientific topics ranging from the mode of action of biomolecular motors, tissue formation to novel regenerative therapies in medicine. Currently about 250 PhD students are enrolled in the program.

„I’m very pleased that the international review board recognized our achievements and recommended the DIGS-BB for further funding. This provides us the opportunity to further increase our international visibility and to permanently establish our program among the top Graduate Schools“ said Gerhard Rödel, the speaker of the DIGS-BB.

Only the best graduates in natural and engineering sciences and medicine get the opportunity to become a member of the DIGS-BB. About 1,000 candidates from all over the world apply every year for admission in one of the following three programs: “Cell, Developmental and Systems Biology” (CellDevoSys), “Regenerative Medicine” (RegMed) and “Biophysics and Bioengineering” (BioEng).

The PhD students of the DIGS-BB realize ambitious projects beyond disciplinary borders and thereby benefit from the excellent research conditions, the broad expertise of the participating scientists and from an individualized training and supervision concept by an interdisciplinary team of experts.

http://tu-dresden.de/exzellenz/graduiertenschulen/digsbb
http://www.digs-bb.de/digs-bb

Information for journalists:
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Rödel, Speaker of the DIGS-BB
Phone 0351 463-37508
gerhard.roedel@tu-dresden.de