Photo: UHH/von Wieding

Research News August 2026

In this issue, you will find information on nine new projects and grants. If you would like to learn more about the individual projects, please feel free to contact the researchers directly.

• Volkswagen Foundation: €285,000 for a Bridge Professorship held by Prof. Brooke Ackerly, PhD, at the University of Hamburg
• EU Funding for Innovative Applications in the Field of Extended Reality
• Claussen Simon Fund for Universities: €5,500 for the Science for Democracy project
• Extension of the Research Training Group Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space
• University of Hamburg Business School Welcomes Humboldt Research Award Recipient Prof. Dr. Prasad A. Naik
• Four New Humboldt Research Fellowships for Postdocs

Volkswagen Foundation: €285,000 for a Bridge Professorship held by Prof. Brooke Ackerly, PhD, at the University of Hamburg

State-funded and initiative-run projects often fail to achieve the intended impact in crisis situations. For example, the Ebola crisis in Africa and earthquake relief efforts in Haiti have shown that many financial resources do not automatically translate into improvements for the communities affected. Given climate change’s impact on the health of particularly vulnerable groups and the increasing scale of relief and emergency interventions, it is therefore essential to understand the epistemically grounded factors that determine whether these partnership projects between institutions and initiatives succeed or fail. Prof. Brooke Ackerly will investigate this—based on political science research on re-negotiating democracy and fundamental rights—as part of her visiting professorship.

This is a transatlantic bridge professorship under the Volkswagen Foundation’s funding program of the same name. The program is aimed at internationally renowned professors in the humanities and social sciences who are currently based in the United States and wish to work simultaneously in both the United States and Germany. Prof. Ackerly, who is coming to Hamburg from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, will receive €285,000 and will work at the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences over the next 36 months. The focus will be on developing research-based recommendations for action aimed at local groups, policymakers, development aid workers, major foundations, and government donor organizations.

Prof. Ackerly will collaborate closely with Prof. Antje Wiener, PhD, a professor of political science specializing in global governance in the Department of Social Science, who played a leading role in preparing the grant application. Collaborations with Prof. Dr. Peter Niesen, a professor of political theory, and Prof. Dr. Vera E. Troeger, a professor of comparative politics in the Department of Political Science, as well as with researchers from the CLICCS Climate Cluster of Excellence, the DFG-funded Research Unit PROMISE, and the DFG-funded Graduate Program Collective Decision-Making are also planned. Prof. Brooke Ackerly will also offer courses on selected topics from International Political Theory, Feminist Political Theory, and Methods of Grounded Normative Theory in the coming semester.

Contact: Prof. Antje Wiener, PhD FAcSS MAE, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Science, Subject group Political Science, Email: antje.wiener"AT"uni-hamburg.de

EU Funding for Innovative Applications in the Field of Extended Reality

In a world where digital and real-world experiences are becoming more and more intertwined, a new understanding of extended reality (XR) is becoming increasingly important. This is where the “OmenXR” project (On-the-fly Multisensory collaboratioN in eXtended Reality) comes in. Coordinated by the French research institute INRIA, it is funded by the European Union with nearly €5 million as part of the Innovation Actions program. The goal is to develop virtual worlds that enable users not only to see, but also—in sync—to feel, hear, and even perceive smells. The aim is a coherent, emotionally engaging overall experience. The potential applications are diverse—ranging from safe remote support in demanding industrial environments to therapeutic training in the healthcare sector and cultural experiences that actively engage multiple senses.

Prof. Dr. Frank Steinicke from the Human-Computer Interaction research group in the Department of Informatics at the University of Hamburg will receive €757,800 of the total funding. He will lead the technical developments: “At the Hamburg site, we will primarily develop XR-based virtual AI agents and immersive remote robot control.” Specifically, the goal is to develop an application that supports work on the particle accelerator at the DESY electron synchrotron. “The new XR environment must be designed with human needs in mind,” says Steinicke. It is to be implemented and evaluated as part of the project. A particular focus of “OmenXR” is on responsible innovation: The results should not only be technologically compelling but also build trust and take social diversity into account.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Frank Steinicke, University of Hamburg, Department of Informatics, Email: frank.steinicke"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Claussen Simon Fund for Universities: €5,500 for the Science for Democracy project

In times of growing radical and anti-democratic tendencies, Prof. Dr. Dorothea Alewell of the University of Hamburg Business School and Mariusz Scharfenberg from the Department of Earth System Sciences at the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences aim to empower students to use scientific methods in a targeted manner to strengthen democratic resilience. They plan to offer an interdisciplinary and interactive course on the topic of Democratic Competence and Scientific Method, aimed at students from all faculties at the University of Hamburg, which is scheduled to be offered for the first time in the Summer Semester of 2027.

Among other things, students will learn to understand science as a mindset and develop key skills such as active listening and discourse. The goal is to create an integrative science and democracy training program. To this end, the Science for Democracy project is receiving €5,500 from the Claussen Simon Foundation. The resources from the Claussen Simon Fund for Universities are intended to improve academic teaching and learning and to help develop new teaching opportunities and formats.

Contact:

• Prof. Dr. Dorothea Alewell, University of Hamburg, University of Hamburg Business School, Email: dorothea.alewell"AT"uni-hamburg.de
• Mariusz Scharfenberg, University of Hamburg, Department of Earth System Sciences, Email: mariusz.scharfenberg"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Extension of the Research Training Group Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space

In cities, numerous pressing issues concerning the future—such as climate policy, transportation, housing, infrastructure, and energy supply—are constantly being renegotiated through a wide variety of processes. Cities are thus central sites of socio-ecological transformation. In the Research Training Group Urban Future-Making: Scopes of Action in Professional Practice Across Time and Space, led at HafenCity University, researchers are investigating how various stakeholders in these fields—such as architects, engineers, administrative specialists, and planners—maintain their capacity to act and shape the future in times of heightened urgency and uncertainty.

The program, which enables doctoral studies within a structured, interdisciplinary framework, also includes Prof. Dr. Christine Hentschel (Professorshipof Sociology: Security and Resilience) and Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid (Professorship of Sociology, in particular Conduct of Life and Sustainability) from the Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, as well as Prof. Dr. Benno Fladvad (Junior Professorship for Natural Science Peace Research with a focus on Climate and Security) from the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences at the University of Hamburg. In June 2026, the German Research Foundation extended the Research Training Group for a second funding phase, running from October 2026 to March 2031.

Contact:

• Prof. Dr. Benno Fladvad, University of Hamburg, Department of Earth System Sciences, Email: benno.fladvad"AT"uni-hamburg.de
• Prof. Dr. Christine Hentschel, University of Hamburg, Department of Social Sciences, Email: christine.hentschel-2"AT"uni-hamburg.de
• Prof. Dr. Katharina Manderscheid, University of Hamburg, Department of Socioeconomics, Email: katharina.manderscheid"AT"uni-hamburg.de

University of Hamburg Business School Welcomes Humboldt Research Award Recipient Prof. Dr. Prasad A. Naik

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation has awarded a Humboldt Research Prize to Prof. Dr. Prasad A. Naik of the University of California. The nomination was coordinated primarily by Prof. Dr. Kay Peters, Endowed Professor of Marketing and Dialog Marketing at the University of Hamburg Business School. Naik conducts research and publishes at the intersection of business administration, operations research, statistics, and econometrics. As part of the award, which comes with a grant of €80,000, he will undertake several research stays at the University of Hamburg this year and next, and will also carry out projects at universities in Aachen, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Mannheim, Munich, and Münster. Plans include workshops, a lecture tour through several regions of Germany, and new interdisciplinary projects—particularly with researchers in applied physics.

Through Prof. Naik’s perspective, key insights from physics will be examined for their potential applications in economics. Possible examples include applying gravitational models to how brands attract customers or applying the Schrödinger equation to the probability that a customer relationship is still intact or has already been lost.

Each year, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation awards up to 100 Humboldt Research Prizes to internationally leading scientists from abroad across all disciplines. The prize is part of the 1000-Köpfe-plus initiative of the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space.

Contact: Prof. Dr. Kay Peters, University of Hamburg, University of Hamburg Business School, Email: kay.peters"AT"uni-hamburg.de

Four New Humboldt Research Fellowships for Postdocs

Dr. Alejandro Poveda Ruzafa from the University of Barcelona will spend three months each summer in 2026 and 2027 as a Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Hamburg. He is conducting research in Prof. Dr. Benedikt Löwe’s group on issues related to the set-theoretic foundations of mathematics. Two other Humboldt Research Fellows are working at the Center for Bioinformatics under Prof. Dr. Jan Baumbach: Dr. Morteza Rakhshaninejad (Ghent University) is working on AI-based methods in pharmacology to make the discovery of new active compounds more reliable. Dr. Jinxin Zhao (Monash University, Melbourne) is using computer models to investigate how certain viruses can specifically combat dangerous, antibiotic-resistant bacteria. In addition, Dr. Melanie Brazzell from Harvard University will spend several months each summer in 2026, 2027, and 2028 at the University of Hamburg as part of a Humboldt Research Fellowship, working in Prof. Dr. Nina Perkowski’s group in the Department of Social Sciences on empirical social research, with a particular focus on violence and security studies.

With these fellowships, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation supports exceptionally qualified early career researchers from around the world. They can carry out their research projects in Germany, with funding periods ranging from six to 24 months.

Contact:

• Prof. Dr. Benedikt Löwe, University of Hamburg, Department of Mathematics, Email: benedikt.loewe"AT"uni-hamburg.de
• Prof. Dr. Jan Baumbach, University of Hamburg, Center for Bioinformatics, Email: jan.baumbach"AT"uni-hamburg.de
• Prof. Dr. Nina Perkowski, University of Hamburg, Department of Social Sciences, Email: nina.perkowski"AT"uni-hamburg.de

(This content has been translated automatically.)