On 15 June 2012, Oldenburg hearing research celebrated a major success: the "Hearing4all" cluster of excellence proposal was approved as part of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments.
The partners are Hannover Medical School and Leibniz Universität Hannover. The funding at the time totalled 28 million euros. The Minister of Science at the time, Prof. Dr Johanna Wanka (3rd from left), emphasised: "With sums of this magnitude, research results can be achieved that would otherwise be virtually unattainable." Oldenburg physicist and physician Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier (3rd from right) said: "This is a great day for hearing research in Lower Saxony. We are delighted that our joint work to date has been recognised and we will now continue this work under new conditions for the benefit of the hearing impaired." 3.7 million people in Germany currently wear a hearing aid (Destatis 2024).
In 2018, "Hearing4all" scored points in the Excellence Strategy for the second time, and the Cluster of Excellence is currently applying for a third funding period. The interdisciplinary research team has made considerable progress in recent years. For example, it has been able to optimise the sound quality and speech intelligibility of hearing aids, integrate artificial intelligence into hearing aids and further develop cochlear implants. In the next funding phase, the researchers want to develop data-driven solutions for hearing aids, investigate the genetic causes of hearing loss with a view to new treatment options and shed light on social-communicative factors in hearing comprehension, among other things.
The other people in the photo are (from left): Stephan Albani, then Managing Director of HörTech/Hörzentrum Oldenburg, Prof. Dr Erich Barke, then President of the University of Hanover, Prof. Prof. h. c. Dr Thomas Lenarz, deputy spokesperson for "Hearing4All", Prof. Dr Babette Simon, then President of the University of Oldenburg, Prof. Dr Dieter Bitter-Suermann, then President of Hanover Medical School.