Department of Computing Science. The RTG SCARE is established at a site that is internationally reknown for its research into correct computerized systems: the Department of Computing Science at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. The department was funded 25 years ago and since then has become a fully developed, dynamic center of computer science in the North West of Germany. Currently, the department comprises 18 full professors and three junior professors. In their university research groups some 70 co-workers are active in teaching and research. Additionally, some 150 scientists are working at the associated research institute OFFIS (see below).

Safety Critical Systems. Since 2003, the University of Oldenburg supports the establishment of Interdisciplinary Research Centers (Forschungszentren, IRCs) complementing the faculty structure, and defined a rigorous process for the inauguration of such IRCs, with excellence criteria comparable to those applied for Collaborative Research Centers of the German Science Foundation. As of today, two IRCs have been awarded, with the IRC on Safety Critical Systems (IRC SCS) and the IRC for Neurosensory Systems.

The IRC SCS combines scientists from computer science, electrical engineering, psychology, and physics sharing design, analysis, and verification of safety critical systems as overarching research theme. Members of the IRC both come from different faculties of the CvOU, and the R&D division on transportation of the associated applied research institute OFFIS (see below). Of the scientific advisor of SCARE, E. Best, W. Damm, M. Fränzle, W. Nebel, E.-R. Olderog, O. Theel are members of the IRC SCS. Altogether, the IRC SCS comprises today some 100 full time scientists, and teams together 16 full professors.

Automatic Verification and Analysis of Complex Systems. The Universities of Oldenburg, Freiburg, and Saarbrücken as well as the Max-Planck-Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken cooperate within the Transregional Collaborative Research Center "Automatic Verification and Analysis of Complex Systems" (AVACS, www.avacs.org) funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG SFB/TR 14, 2004–2015). AVACS strives to advance the state-of-the-art in verification and analysis of complex computerized systems by suitably combing and advancing various core techniques like abstraction, constraint solving, heuristic search, linear programming, model checking, Lyapunov method, and abstract interpretation. The center is organized into the project groups R (real-time systems), H (hybrid systems), and S (coarse grain system structures) with altogether nine projects. The principle investigators from Oldenburg are W. Damm (as the director of the center), M. Fränzle, E.-R. Olderog, and O. Theel.

Integrated Modelling for Safe Transportation. The interdisciplinary project "Integrated Modelling for Safe Transportation"(IMoST) funded by Ministery of Science and Culture in Lower Saxony (MWK, 2007–2013) bundles competences of the University of Oldenburg, OFFIS and DLR Braunschweig in psychology and computer science to improve the safety analysis of driving assistance systems for cars. The main emphasis is to combine models for drivers, vehicles, assistance system, and environment to improve the predictability of the impact of assistance systems on the safety of the cars. Of the scientifc advisors of SCARE, W. Damm (as coordinator), M. Fränzle and E.-R. Olderog are principle investigators in IMoST.

CSE. The "Interdisciplinary Research Center for Critical Systems Engineering for Socio-Technical Systems" (CSE) at the University of Oldenburg addresses the engineering of critical systems that rely on synergistically blending human skills with IT-enabled capabilities of technicalsystems, with focus on automotive and maritime applications. It integrates the highly visible research at the University of Oldenburg in the areas of safety critical systems, neurosensory systems, and maritime systems, and research in its newly founded European Medical School .In this center researchers from the University of Oldenburg (Departments of Computing Sciences and of Psychology, Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment -- ICBM) cooperate with researchers from OFFIS Institute for Information Technology (R&D Divisions of Transportation and of Health) and DLR, Braunschweig (Deutsches Zentrum füur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institute of Transportation Systems). CSE has also an industrial link through the SafeTRANS (Safety in Transportation Systems) Working Group focusing on safety, testing, and development processes for highly autonomous systems. CSE is funded by the Ministry of Science and Culture (MWK) of Lower Saxonia, and aims at boosting the competitiveness of research in critical systems in Lower Saxony.

Of the SCARE supervisors, W. Damm, M. Fränzle, and S. Fröschle are PIs in this center.This guarantees that the application scenarios of CSE inspire PhD projects in SCARE.

OFFIS – Institute for Informatics. The associated research institute OFFIS (www.offis.de), founded in 1991 on the initiative of professors of the Department of Computing Science, has successfully established close industrial cooperation on the international, national, and regional level, there serving as catalyzer for an IT-center today comprising more than 1400 positions in IT-dominated companies, including several spin-offs of OFFIS. The R&D Division on Transportation closest to AVACS has more than 70 full-time scientists and 40 graduate students. It is internationally renowned for its applied research in embedded and safety critical systems, and is cooperating with leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and suppliers in all three transportation sectors. The R&D Division on Transportation has been actively supporting AVACS both in providing access to application domain know-how in rail, avionics, and automotive, as well as in supporting the development of benchmarks. W. Nebel (as the chair) and W. Damm are board members of OFFIS.