Resolv Cluster of Excellence secures further funding
Great joy in the Ruhr region: The Cluster of Excellence in solvation science has once again succeeded in the competition.
The Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) and the TU Dortmund University have been successful in Germany’s Excellence Strategy: starting from 2019, the new Ruhr Explores Solvation (Resolv) Cluster of Excellence, hosted at both RUB and TU Dortmund University, will receive funding for seven years.
“We are proud of the achievements of our top researchers and the new success,” says Rector Professor Axel Schölmerich. “The cluster’s funding, which will once again amount to millions over seven years, will give an additional boost to solvent research and the entire Ruhr region, which is increasingly becoming an attractive location for internationally renowned research. At the same time, the successful work of the Bochum-based cluster in the first funding phase is being honoured.”
“We congratulate the consortium on this outstanding success, which is based both on exceptional achievements and on a forward-looking research programme,” says TU Dortmund University Rector Professor Ursula Gather. “The basis for this achievement is also the successful cooperation that TU Dortmund University and Ruhr-Universität Bochum have developed over the past six years in the field of solvation science.”
Strong network
In Resolv – Understanding and Design of Solvent-Controlled Processes –, scientists investigate the role of solvents. Experts from RUB and TU Dortmund University have already been successfully cooperating with scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen and other non-university partners during the first funding phase of Resolv. The German Research Foundation (DFG) supported the Resolv Cluster of Excellence at RUB from 2012 to 2018. Resolv has since developed a dense network in solvation research– both within the region and internationally.
Cluster Resolv
Most chemical reactions, important industrial processes and almost all biological processes take place in the liquid phase. The team from the Resolv Cluster of Excellence wants to understand how the solvent is involved in the control, mediation and regulation of chemical reactions. More than 200 chemists, physicists and engineers are working together to decipher the role of solvent molecules and develop new concepts for industry based on their findings.
“We are delighted to be funded again and to be able to tackle the future challenges of solvation science”, says Professor Martina Havenith, speaker of Resolv. “We will now explore chemical processes beyond ambient conditions, beyond thermal equilibrium and beyond homogeneous bulk phase to advance the development of important technological applications, such as energy conversion and storage, or the development of smart sensors.”
The Cluster of Excellence has established its own graduate school and promotes measures for equality and diversity, internationalisation, knowledge transfer and support for early career researchers.
RUB and TU Dortmund University act as host universities in Resolv. Their scientists work together with partners from the University of Duisburg-Essen, the Max Planck Institutes for Iron Research (Düsseldorf) and Coal Research (Mülheim an der Ruhr), as well as the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety, and Energy Technology – Umsicht – in Oberhausen. In addition, the researchers from the Ruhr region have an international network of high-ranking scientists at their disposal.
