Here's to another seven years!

22 May 2025

Photo: UHH/CUI

The outstanding work of the cluster can be continued.

Great success for the Center of Excellence CUI: From 1 January 2026, the Cluster of Excellence “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter” will be funded for a further seven years as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.

The members of the international panel of experts appointed by the Joint Science Conference of the Federal and State Governments (GWK) spent three days at the Bonn Science Center discussing the 98 applications for funding for new Clusters of Excellence based on previous international reviews. On 22 May 2025, the members of the committee of experts and the federal and state ministers responsible for science and research then met to make the final decision - and selected CUI for a further funding phase.

"We are delighted that our research concept was convincing and that we can continue our cluster's outstanding work in this form," the cluster spokespersons Prof. Francesca Calegari, Prof. Henry Chapman, and Prof. Klaus Sengstock say. This is a great success for interdisciplinary science in Hamburg, which has grown from the strong foundations of physics, chemistry and nanoscience. For a year and a half, the cluster's scientists have been discussing research intensively and developing approaches of outstanding importance in the fields of quantum science, photon science and nanoscience. Further groundbreaking research results can be expected. Additionally, innovative approaches and measures optimize research conditions for scientists, forming a solid foundation for successful research. The results and applications achieved in the cluster are promising milestones for society, such as quantum materials and new drug development methods, to give two examples.

Cluster funding is particularly relevant for training future researchers, a goal that “CUI: Advanced Imaging of Matter” has made its own and which is internationally outstanding. “To date, more than 200 doctoral and postdoctoral students have received funding through AIM! This will strengthen international research in the long term. We look forward to welcoming the next cohort of highly talented and motivated students who wish to embark on their scientific careers at AIM”, the spokespersons say.

The partnership within the cluster between the scientists from the University of Hamburg, DESY, the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and the European XFEL is also particularly noteworthy. Their research focuses on the observation of molecular dynamics and the new functionalities that arise with the increasing complexity and size of a system. In the future, they will increasingly focus on the question of how novel functionalities can be specifically designed.