uni.news

» Published on 27. Oktober 2021

Towards the Detection of the Nanohertz Gravitational-wave background

 How do galaxies evolve? The European Pulsar Timing Array provides a significant step forward

The European Pulsar Timing Array collaboration reports on the outcome of a 24 year observing campaign with five large-aperture radio telescopes in Europe, resulting in a candidate signal for the since-long sought gravitational wave background due to in-spiraling supermassive black-hole binaries. The collaboration brings together teams of astronomers around the largest European radio telescopes, as well as groups specialized in data analysis and modelling of gravitational wave signals. Among them are astrophysicists from the research group of Professor Dr. Joris Verbiest from the Faculty of Physics at Bielefeld University.Although a detection cannot be claimed yet, this represents a significant step in the effort to finally unveil gravitational waves at very low frequencies in the Nanohertz regime.
The results are presented online as refereed publication in the “Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society”.

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» Published on 17. Juni 2021

Signing the 2020 Magna Charta Universitatum

At the invitation of the Observatory Magna Charta in Bologna, Italy, Bielefeld University participated in the virtual ceremony for the official signing of the 2020 Magna Charta Universitatum, which took place on June 16th and 17th. Rector Professor Dr.-Ing. Gerhard Sagerer served as signatory in the ceremony. In a video message, Rector Sagerer explained how the values of the Magna Charta Universitatum are put into practice at Bielefeld University. This presentation was selected as an exemplary model of “Best Practices” at the ceremony.

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» Published on 5. November 2020

European Funding Worth Millions for Bielefeld Computer Scientist

Professor Barbara Hammer and three European colleagues receive ERC Synergy Grant 

Secure the supply of drinking water in the face of urban growth: Dr Barbara Hammer, professor of computer science from Bielefeld University, and three other European scientists will be exploring new technologies for this purpose. The European Research Council (ERC) is supporting the four scientists in their project Water-Futures with its Synergy Grant—one of the European Union’s most prestigious research grants. For the next six years, the four researchers will receive a total of 10 million euros, 2.4 million euros of which will go to Bielefeld University. 

 

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» Published on 15. September 2020

Funding for OWL–Alberta virtual university cooperation

Next step in the strategic partnership with Canada

Due to the pandemic, digital teaching at German universities has developed rapidly in recent months. Bielefeld University can now make particular use of this upswing for its partnership with higher education institutions in the Canadian region of Alberta, thereby pushing ahead withinternational virtual academic cooperation. The ‘We CAN Virtu-OWL’ project between Eastern Westphalian universities and partner universities in the Alberta region (Canada), which has been approved by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and is led by Bielefeld University, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with 210,000 euros.

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» Published on 2. Juli 2020

What Europe means for research, study and work at university

The question is answered by a researcher, a staff member and a student at the university

Innovative research and teaching in a network of six young European universities away from the big metropolises: With this vision, the university, together with five partner universities, is applying to become a "European university". What does Europe mean for research, studying and working at university? The question is answered by a researcher, a staff member and a student at the university. 

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» Published on 9. Juni 2020

Bring the European regions beyond the metropolises closer together

Bielefeld University, together with five other universities, is applying for the title "European University". The decision will be made in July. In an interview, Professor Angelika Epple, Vice Rector for International Affairs and Diversity, explains the background.

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» Published on 15. Mai 2020

How news becomes false news

New ZiF research group on the effects of digital media

Social media is changing communication just as much as the dissemination of news. Radical positions that used to be voiced in the private sphere can now reach a worldwide audience. The research group "Multimodal Rhetoric in Online Media Communications" at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) at Bielefeld University will investigate how sub-communities and other interested parties create, manage and disseminate information across media platforms. The researchers will focus specifically on the role of language, images and videos in this process. The group starts on May 18, with a virtual opening conference. The aim is to develop analysis tools that will allow us track the development and flow of different kinds of information, particularly false information, across media platforms.

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» Published on 27. Februar 2020

Identifying pathogenic genes in virus strains at a glance

International project to help determine genetic abnormalities

 

When new viruses or bacteria spread to humans, it is essential to clarify their special characteristics as quickly as possible. For example, why is the coronavirus resistant to common drugs? In the future, new Big Data technology can help to identify the characteristics of new strains of viruses and bacteria in a short time. It does this by comparing the genome of a single organism with the genome of all the strains of a species. This procedure can also be used for more highly developed organisms such as mammals. The new project ‘Pangaia’ at Bielefeld University is investigating how the masses of data used in this process can be ordered and analysed for use in biomedicine. The university is one of eleven project partners from Europe and North America. The EU is funding the project with 1.14 million euros over three years.

 

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» Published on 24. Februar 2020

Five million euros for the ‘de.NBI’ bioinformatics network

Further funding for the project based in Bielefeld five years after its start

 

It should be possible for researchers in the life sciences to draw on powerful technological services throughout Germany when they need to analyse large data sets. This is why the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) invested about 80 million euros in a major large-scale project: the German Network for Bioinformatics Infrastructure (de.NBI). Bielefeld University is coordinating the project. On Thursday 13 February, scientists and politicians celebrated the fifth anniversary and the previous successes of the network with a symposium in Berlin. These successes include a distributed cloud infrastructure, eight service centres throughout the nation, and 40 participating bioinformatics groups. The BMBF has now announced continued funding for the de.NBI. Until the end of 2021, Bielefeld University alone will have up to 5.3 million euros at its disposal to continue the project.

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» Published on 24. Februar 2020

From Disseminating Ideology to Financing: How Extremist Networks Operate

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