We are delighted to announce the opening of a new centre for Data Assimilation at the University of Potsdam (details at http://www.uni-potsdam.de/sfb1294.html) led by our MPECDT Chair of the Research Committee, Professor Sebastian Reich. The assimilation of time-dependent data sets into complex evolution models leads to unique mathematical and computational challenges, which provide the central theme of the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center SFB 1294 “Data Assimilation – The Seamless Integration of Data and Models”, hosted at the University of Potsdam jointly with its partner Institutions HU Berlin, TU Berlin, WIAS Berlin and GFZ Potsdam.
Data assimilation is a newly emerging field which lies at the confluence of several established research areas in mathematics and statistics on the one hand and application areas such as geosciences on the other. The vision of SFB 1294 is to establish a rigorous mathematical underpinning of data assimilation, to develop principled computational
methodologies, and to apply these methodologies to emerging application fields in the geosciences, neurosciences and biophysics.
SFB 1294 provides a fantastic research infrastructure including 12 research projects, a large interdisciplinary network of researchers, its own graduate school, and funding opportunities for conference visits, summer schools, hosting international experts etc. See www.sfb1294.de for more details.
What are Collaborative Research Centers?
- Collaborative Research Centers (short SFB for german ‘Sonderforschungsbereich’) are university research projects which are funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), generally for a period of up to 12 years.
- Collaborative Research Centers provide a platform for conducting complex, long-term research.
- In particular, they support the professional development of young scientists, promoting cooperation across different disciplines, fields of specialization, institutes and faculties.
- These collaborative alliances strengthen the academic relationships between universities and other research institutes.
- http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/programmes/coordinated_programmes/collaborative_research_centres/
