Shaping the future: Weimar Cluster of Excellence examines social visions

Shaping the future: Weimar Cluster of Excellence examines social visions

Research on socially relevant topics is playing an increasingly central role at German universities. An outstanding example of this is the newly established “Imaginamics” Cluster of Excellence at the Bauhaus University Weimar. This cluster focuses on researching social imaginaries – i.e. how societies can develop shared ideas about their environments, narratives and future plans. Scientists at this institution, including Prof. Henning Schmidgen, Prof. Sabine Wirth and Prof. Bernd Fröhlich, are also investigating the effects of social media on social polarization and the emergence of new forms of community through virtual reality. uni-weimar.de reports that such topics not only face scientific challenges, but can also harbor a high potential for conflict.

The importance of such interdisciplinary research projects is underlined by the Excellence Initiative of the federal and state governments. This initiative promotes clusters of excellence, which are considered large collaborative research projects in which scientists from different disciplines work together. This collaboration promotes the training of top performers in research and strengthens Germany as a science location. In the first phase of the initiative, which started in 2007, Berlin universities were able to establish four of the 37 clusters nationwide, including “Neurocure” and “Topoi”. berlin-university-alliance.de highlights that some of these clusters received funding in the following years, allowing research to be further intensified.

Funding and future prospects

The “Imaginamics” Cluster of Excellence at the Bauhaus University will run for seven years and will receive funding of up to 30 million euros. Prof. Guido Morgenthal, one of the scientists involved, emphasizes the crucial role of the Excellence Initiative for the university. The cluster benefits from the newly established professorship for “Algorithmic Imagination” as well as an independent young research group. The aim of this research is to find innovative ways in which social challenges can be both identified and overcome. Wissenschaftsrat.de makes it clear that the Excellence Strategy represents a permanent funding program that aims to strengthen the university and science location in the long term.

The Excellence Strategy, which was launched in 2019 with the support of the federal and state governments, includes two main funding lines: On the one hand, the clusters of excellence, which take care of financing internationally competitive research fields at German universities. On the other hand, there are the universities of excellence, which are institutionally supported to enable sustainable, cutting-edge research. The annual funding level of currently 533 million euros will be increased to 687 million euros by 2026. This financial support is intended to strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration within the research landscape.

The creation of such research infrastructures not only expands academic knowledge, but also contributes to the ability to analyze social issues using an interdisciplinary approach. The findings from projects such as the “Imaginamics” Cluster of Excellence could provide significant impetus for the development of collaborative solutions to social challenges in the future.