Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz > Faculty 08 > Physics > Physics Research > Coordinated Research Programs

The Mainz-based particle physicists working in the PRISMA+ Cluster of Excellence are among the world’s leading researchers in their field. PRISMA+ addresses basic questions about the nature of the fundamental building blocks of matter and their importance for the physics of the universe. The Cluster is made up of renowned research groups that work primarily in the areas of astroparticle, high energy, and hadron physics, nuclear chemistry, and precision physics with ultra-cold neutrons and ion traps. One of the main initiatives of the Cluster concerns the conduction of various new key experiments to study the fundamental forces and limits of the Standard Model.

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) funds various outstanding research projects. DFG-funded projects at JGU Mainz include Collaborative Research Centers, Research Units, and Priority Programs.

Collaborative Research Centers (CRC) are university research institutions established on a long-term basis, in which academics collaborate within the framework of an interdisciplinary research program. The different variants of the Collaborative Research Centers – Cultural Studies Research Centers and Transregional Collaborative Research Centers – as well as the program supplements Junior Research Groups and Transfer Units are all funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). In all variants, international cooperation agreements are funded.

A Research Unit is made up of a team of researchers working together on a research project which, in terms of thematic focus, duration, and financing, extends beyond the funding options available under the Individual Grants Program or Priority Program. Research Units provide the staff and material resources required for carrying out intensive, medium-term cooperative projects (generally for a period of eight years). Research Units often contribute to establishing new research directions. Funding opportunities for Research Units are subject to the same principles as research grants.

A particular feature of the Priority Program is the nationwide collaboration between its participating researchers.
The DFG Senate may establish a Priority Program when the coordinated support given to the area in question promises to produce particular scientific gain. The Senate convenes once a year to discuss initiatives for establishing Priority Programs proposed by researchers.

These projects are funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (Bundesministerium für ­Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt, BMFTR).

The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for the funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union.

ERC Advanced Grants

ERC Synergy Grants (with JGU involvement)

JGU’s Top-Level Research Areas bring together internationally established working groups that have already produced excellent results. The Ministry of Science and Health of Rhineland-Palatinate currently funds the following Top-Level Research Areas:

The Institute for Quantitative and Computational Biosciences (IQCB) is an interdisciplinary research institute at the interface between the life sciences and neighboring disciplines including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and engineering.

CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) is an organization devoted to the promotion of fundamental research on advanced computational methods and to their application to important problems in frontier areas of science and technology. The node Soft Matter and Statistical Mechanics views itself as particularly strong in various aspects of Computational Soft Matter Science.

This Research Training Group (RTG) takes the form of a graduate school and aims to balance individual research projects with a training and lecture program. The training concept includes the construction of a new experiment at the MAMI accelerator, a specialized workshop program on modern detector technologies, a summer-school with special theory lectures for experimental physicists, as well as a long-term research stay at a foreign research institution. This concept is shaping a new generation of experimental hadron, particle, and astroparticle physicists who are not only specialists in their own field of research, but also generalists who possess basic skills in several aspects of modern detector technologies.

The Max Planck Graduate Center (MPGC) is the joint graduate school of two Max Planck Institutes and Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, created specifically for interdisciplinary projects. Are you seeking to complete your PhD thesis in a highly interdisciplinary research environment on a subject that supersedes traditional categories like biology, chemistry, physics, or medicine? The MPGC offers an advanced, interdisciplinary PhD program for outstanding students from all over the world. Uniquely, the MPGC has its own, tailored doctoral degree regulations.

Due to their high beam power, energy recovery LINACs (ERLs) are a promising class of particle accelerators that have not yet been the subject of much study. The AccelencE Graduate School aims to train young scientists in the interdisciplinary field of accelerator physics within the framework of a structured PhD program and with a special focus on ERLs. Therefore, the training will take place both at the first German ERL accelerator S-DALINAC in Darmstadt and at the high-current ERL MESA, which is presently under construction at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.

Soft matter is already ubiquitous in our daily life. New developments in medical technology, energy storage, and information technology also exploit soft materials characterized by complex, often nanoscale hierarchical structures. The scientific goal of this Research Training Group is to harvest the potential of interfaces as agents to control the assembly process, pathways, and the final properties of these materials.