Transdisciplinary Research Areas

Source: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/research-and-teaching/research-profile/transdisciplinary-research-areas Parent: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/research-and-teaching/research-profile/excellence-strategy

Research for and with society: at the University of Bonn, we seek transdisciplinary solutions to the pressing issues of tomorrow.

The world itself does not exist divided neatly into selfcontained fields of scientific expertise. Global challenges such as the climate crisis, food security and the increasing division of society can only be overcome through innovative collaborative approaches.

This insight led to the University of Bonn forming six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) as a core element of the institution’s Excellence Strategy.

What are TRAs?

Research at the point where differing fields meet

Researchers at our University collaborate across disciplinary lines. Equipped with their own resources and professorships, the TRAs bring together more than 900 top-level researchers from the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and life sciences. All TRAs strive through combined expertise to develop solutions capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

Research for and with society

Whenever possible, we capitalize on opportunities to collaborate with external partners, including research institutes, private enterprises, the media and actors in government and civil society. In order to come up with effective approaches and find answers to pressing questions affecting our future, research must be informed by empirical experience from everyday life in our society.

Transdisciplinary Research Areas at the University of Bonn

Bild © Universität Bonn / YouTube

Openness and cooperation

The TRAs are open to all researchers active at the University of Bonn and its partner institutions who are able to contribute to the specific topics being studied in them. The support that they give to academic and scientific partnerships also makes the TRAs incubators for new collaborative projects, ideas for which are discussed in workshops and lecture series. Financial support has already been secured for new research ideas, open-science initiatives and teaching projects as well as the groundwork for new Collaborative Research Centers and Research Training Groups. Conducting transparent research into and in dialogue with society is a key pillar of the University’s new research profile.

Sounds interesting? Find out more about our TRAs on this and the following pages and make sure to check out the linked reports.

Our six TRAs

Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation of Complex Systems

Understanding complex systems through a combination of mathematical modelling, observation methods, computer-aided simulation and a creative mind.

TRA Modelling1

Report TRA Modelling2

Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions

How do the various components that matter is made from interact with one another? How do complex structures form on completely different length scales?

TRA Matter3

Report TRA Matter4

Life and Health

Understanding the complexities of life and coming up with new strategies for healthcare. Find out more about the TRA Life and Health.

TRA Life and Health5

Report TRA Life and Health6

Individuals, Institutions and Societies

Studying complex relationships between individuals, institutions and societies and developing new perspectives on micro- and macrophenomena.

TRA Individuals & Societies7

Report TRA Individuals and Societies8

Past Worlds and Modern Questions. Cultures Across Time and Space

We promote and connect up research into the prerequisites for modern societies, the conditions under which they develop and the processes by which heritage is negotiated.

TRA Present Pasts9

Report TRA Present Pasts10

Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Futures

The TRA Sustainable Futures explores institutional, research-based and technology-driven innovations for promoting sustainability.

TRA Sustainable Futures11

Report TRA Sustainable Futures12

Milestones of our TRAs

Use the filter on the right side to find milestones for a specific TRA or choose between five different categories.

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TRA Matter Awards Synergy Prize to Molecular Qubit Project

The University of Bonn is supporting the “Molecular Quantum Information” project, the brainchild of a group of experimental researchers, with the €50,000 Synergy Prize. The award was presented recently by the Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA Matter) as part of the “Matter Connects” networking event. The winning group is one of five Synergy Bubbles, agile interdisciplinary teams that are pursuing innovative research and teaching ideas straddling subject boundaries.

2025

Hertz Chairs

Named after the University of Bonn physicist Heinrich Hertz (1857–1894), the Hertz Chairs lie at the heart of our efforts to promote excellence. They are filled with researchers of international repute who are leading lights in their field of expertise and burnish the profile of our Transdisciplinary Research Areas. These professors are based centrally within the University and given the freedom to establish new areas of research, forge links between disciplines and inject significant fresh momentum where they see fit.

Artificial Intelligence and Neurosciences

Prof. Dr. Dr. Dominik Bach

Within the TRA Life and Health, Dominik Bach is establishing a major new area of focus where the neurosciences meet psychiatry and computer science.

Innovation for Planetary Health

Prof. Dr. Ina Danquah

Ina Danquah investigates the interactions between climate change, nutrition and health. She is Hertz Chair within the TRA Sustainable Futures.

Algorithms and Optimization

Prof. Dr. László Végh

László Végh and his research team in the TRA Modelling investigate algorithmic questions at the interface of mathematical optimization, computer science, and economics.

Designated Hertz Chair for Astrochemistry

Prof. Dr. Serena Viti

Within the TRA Matter, Serena Viti is establishing a major new area of focus at the interface between Astronomy and Chemistry.

Life Ethics

Prof. Dr. Christiane Woopen

Within the TRA Individuals and Societies, Christiane Woopen is studying four dynamics of our time that are interacting on a systemic level— technologization, economization, ecologization and globalization — as well as the associated processes of transformation.

Argelander and Clausius Professorships

Supporting researchers at all stages of their careers is one of the main aims of the University of Bonn in its role as a University of Excellence. This is why the Argelander Professorships (named after the University of Bonn astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander, 1799–1875) were set up. These tenure track professorships are specifically intended to help outstanding early-career researchers and enable them to explore and further develop their research interests at the interface between individual disciplines and beyond subject and faculty boundaries.

The Clausius Professorship was established to mark the 200th anniversary of the University of Bonn physicist Rudolph Clausius (1822–1888). It was awarded to the particularly exceptional early-career researcher Jun. Prof. Dr. Lena Funcke from the Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions Transdisciplinary Research Area.

Integrated System Modeling for Sustainability Transitions

Jun. Prof. Dr. Wolfram Barfuss

Wolfram Barfuss works in the TRA Sustainable Futures to reshape human-environment modeling to identify critical leverage points for sustainability transitions.

Critical Museums and Heritage Studies

Jun. Prof. Dr. Julia Binter

Julia Binter is a member of the Global Heritage Lab in the TRA Present Pasts. Her transcultural research is paving the way for new partnerships with the natural sciences and theologies.

Mathematics, Economics, Computer Science

Prof. Dr. Florian Brandl

Florian Brandl’s work in the TRA Modelling and the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics. He combines methods and approaches taken from economic theory, mathematics and computer science.

Biohybrid Research

Jun. Prof. Dr. Patrycja Kielb

By focusing on “bio-spectro-electrochemistry,” Patrycja Kielb’s work is helping to advance molecular science research in the TRA Matter.

Sustainability and Environmental Transformation Law

Jun. Prof. Dr. Jacqueline Lorenzen

Jacqueline Lorenzen’s research in the TRA Individuals and Societies is focused on legal issues connected with sustainable urban development.

Environmental Economics, Sustainability and Inequality

Jun. Prof. Dr. Julia Mink

Julia Mink is conducting research at the interface between environmental and healthcare economics in the TRA Individuals and Societies.

Organoids and Chemical Biology

Jun. Prof. Dr. Elena Reckzeh

Elena Reckzeh is combining chemical biology and organoid research in order to further expand the “Construction” strand of the research profile in the TRA Life and Health.

Organoid Biology

Jun. Prof. Dr. Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz

With her expertise in human lung organoids, Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz is adding a new dimension to the research profile in the TRA Life and Health.

Particle Physics

Prof. Dr. Lena Funcke

Clausius Professor Lena Funcke is part of the TRA Matter and is studying the development of new models and computer-aided calculation methods to tackle the questions that lie at the heart of particle physics.

Transfer: Transdisciplinary research and impact

The funding secured since 2019 has been channeled into developing and expanding the TRAs as the mainstay of the University of Bonn’s research profile. They are already having an impact not only within the University itself but also in wider society, in technology and in the political sphere.

Science Festival - where visitors young and old can find out all about the TRA

Representatives of the six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) were on hand to introduce themselves and their work at the 2023 Science Festival, which was all about “hands-on science for everybody.”

Wissenschaftsfestival

More Than Technology: Energy as a Societal Responsibility

As part of the Science Year 2025 “Future Energies,” the Transdisciplinary Research Areas, in cooperation with partners from the University of Bonn, hosted the event “Dialogue on Deck: Rethinking Future Energies – Resources, Responsibility, Society” aboard the MS Wissenschaft. In a truly transdisciplinary setting, experts from the fields of economics, anthropology, and agricultural sciences discussed energy beyond purely technical dimensions—highlighting its social, cultural, and ecological implications.

Dialogue on Deck 2025: Rethinking Future Energies – Resources, Responsibility, Society

Contact

Dr. Ines Heuer

iheuer@uni-bonn.de

+49 228 73 7222

Strategic Development and Quality Assurance

Dr. Eva Drews

edrews@uni-bonn.de

+49 228 73 66204