The "Centre for Hearing Research" was opened with a festive ceremony on 23 January 2008 in Oldenburg's The Haus des Hörens. In future, the University of Oldenburg, Hanover Medical School and other Lower Saxony institutions specialising in audiology and applied hearing research will work together here. The state is specifically promoting hearing research based in Lower Saxony in order to strengthen it for the new round of the Excellence Initiative of the federal and state governments to promote science and research. "When Oldenburg's hearing research was left empty-handed in the first decision on the clusters of excellence last year, the initial disappointment was great," recalls Professor Birger Kollmeier, Professor of Physics at the University of Oldenburg. "But it didn't take a year for the efforts for a hearing research cluster to have an impact." The state of Lower Saxony is supporting the research initiative "Hearing and its disorders" with 3.75 million euros, in which the University of Oldenburg, Hanover Medical School and other universities in Lower Saxony are working together. The centre is headed by Oldenburg professors Georg Klump (Biology), Birger Kollmeier (Medical Physics) and the Director of the MHH ENT Clinic, Professor Thomas Lenarz. For years, the University of Oldenburg and Hannover Medical School have been among the world's leading research institutions in the field of audiology and applied hearing research. A whole range of successful structures have been created, including the two hearing centres in Oldenburg and Hanover, the Oldenburg HörTech Center of Competence and the joint Lower Saxony Audiology Initiative. A piece of Oldenburg research work can be found in around 80 per cent of all hearing aids sold worldwide. Most of the world's cochlear implants and implantable hearing aids are implanted at Hannover Medical School.
"The topic of 'hearing' is developing into a unique selling point in Lower Saxony," emphasised Science Minister Lutz Stratmann in his speech. "With the Centre for Hearing Research, the University of Oldenburg, together with the Medical University, is consistently pursuing the path of state-specific profile development, which has already found its starting point in the Audiology Initiative Lower Saxony." More