"NeSSy" - in Oldenburg, the name will not stand for a sea monster that sticks its head out of the Hunte every few years, but for the new building for the "Neurosensory Science" and "Safety-Critical Systems" Research Centres, which was approved by the federal government at the beginning of November. With a construction sum of just under 11 million euros and a usable area of around 2,000 square metres, the new domicile for a total of four university working groups is to be built at the interface between the two research centres - in particular Prof. Kollmeier's Department of Medical Physics.

"In addition to specially acoustically prepared hearing and acoustics laboratories, our plans include the accommodation of a magnetoencephalograph, a functional nuclear spin and a virtual reality laboratory. There will also be a small conference centre and workrooms for third-party funding staff and scientists in both research centres," says Kollmeier, explaining the ambitious project.

The contract was awarded following a tough nationwide competition for new research buildings, in which the Oldenburg proposal was praised by the experts due to the special recognition and networking of Oldenburg's hearing research and the bridging of physics, psychology and Computing Science: "We were able to achieve fifth place from over 30 applications and thus the best placement of all proposals from Lower Saxony," Kollmeier is pleased to say. "This is an important starting signal for the hearing research cluster in 2008."