Excellence Strategy
Excellence Strategy
The University of Oldenburg conducts outstanding research at the highest national and international level. Its researchers are working to create customised and personalised hearing devices for people with hearing impairments. They are exploring the ocean floor to gain a deeper understanding of the largest and least researched interface in the Earth system and its crucial role in the global biogeochemical material cycle and climate dynamics. Other researchers are investigating the amazing navigational abilities of certain animals, as well as the underlying sensory systems and mechanisms. With their research, the university's scientists are tackling some of the major global and societal challenges of our times.
The University of Oldenburg is competing with three projects in the second phase of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments:
- The Hearing4all Cluster of Excellence has been based at the University of Oldenburg since 2012. Together with the Hannover Medical School and Leibniz University Hannover, the university is applying for the second time for a renewal of funding, this time under the title “Hearing4all.connects: Innovative Technologies for Hearing Health – from the ear to the brain to society”.
- In the field of marine research, the Universities of Bremen and Oldenburg are jointly applying for the first time for a funding extension for the Ocean Floor Cluster of Excellence (The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface), which has been based in Bremen since 2019.
- With the NaviSense initiative (NaviSense: International Cluster of Excellence for the Sensory Basis, Mechanisms and Impacts of Animal Navigation), the University of Oldenburg is applying for a new Cluster of Excellence in the field of animal navigation research.
Here you can find out more about what the researchers have already discovered in recent years and what their findings mean for our future and the future of our environment.
Field of excellence: hearing research
The scientists of the Hearing4all Cluster of Excellence and other groups specialised in hearing research at the university are all pursuing a common goal: to develop innovative solutions for people with impaired hearing and thus improve their quality of life in a sustainable way. These researchers have already successfully optimised sound quality and speech intelligibility in hearing aids, integrated artificial intelligence (AI) into hearing devices and made advances in cochlear implant technology. In the next phase they aim to find data-driven solutions for hearing aids, investigate the genetic causes of hearing loss with a view to developing new treatment options, and shed light on socio-communicative factors which impact hearing comprehension.
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Field of excellence: marine research
The complex interactions between organisms and their environment are the focus of the University of Oldenburg’s biodiversity and marine research. A key question in this project is how global environmental changes caused by humans impact the diversity and functioning of ecosystems. Researchers from Oldenburg have been involved in the University of Bremen’s Ocean Floor Cluster of Excellence since 2019. The two universities plan to pool their expertise in a new joint cluster and learn more about the role of the ocean floor in material cycles and about biodiversity under changing climatic conditions. This knowledge will also provide a scientific basis for measures to protect and ensure sustainable use of the oceans.
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Field of excellence: animal navigation research
Each year billions of animals navigate with pinpoint accuracy over vast distances. For example, experienced birds find their way with centimetre precision between a nest site in Europe and a sleeping perch in Africa thousands of kilometres away. To achieve this, they use many senses including vision, olfaction, and a magnetic sense, seemingly based on quantum mechanical effects at ambient temperature. In total, animal migrations move millions of tonnes of biomass across the globe. Thus, navigating animals are essential for global ecosystems. The scientific mission of NaviSense is to provide a deep, interdisciplinary understanding of the senses and mechanisms used by animals to navigate and how these mechanisms can inspire technology and impact society, ecology, and biodiversity.
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