The doctoral training and associated research program of early career researchers in the Research Training Group "Control of structure formation in soft matter at and through interfaces" (RTG 2516) was approved by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a next round of funding. The DFG will provide some EUR 5.2 million including the program allowance for another four and half years, starting in January 2025. The RTG 2516 was established in 2020 to train a new generation of scientists for successful careers in academic or industrial research and development environments. At the core of the program is the systematic integration of theory and experiment combining chemistry and physics, implemented through a tandem supervision of PhD students. In addition to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) acting as program speaker university, the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, the Technical University of Darmstadt and – now in the second funding phase – the University of Stuttgart are participating in this RTG.

Understanding the assembly processes and how to control and actively manipulate them

From beer foam to contact lenses, from rubber tires to toothpaste – soft matter is everywhere in our everyday lives. New developments in medical technology, in energy storage and information technology also use soft materials. Although these materials are very different, they all are characterized by an aggregated state between solid and liquid as well as by complex and hierarchical structures. The research within the RTG 2516 focuses on how exactly these structures form and the potential that interfaces have in this context. "These interfaces help us control the synthetic processes and thus directly manipulate the properties of the soft materials," said Professor Pol Besenius of JGU's Department of Chemistry, the spokesperson of the Research Training Group. A classic example of the related structure formation in the natural world are spiders that produce their silk in an extremely optimized process with exceptional control from the molecular to particle level.

"In our Research Training Group, we aim to discover the universal principles and concepts involved by understanding competing pathways of the self-organization process so that we can control and actively manipulate them," added Professor Friederike Schmid of the JGU Institute of Physics, who is vice-spokesperson of the RTG. Collaborations between physics and chemistry distinguishes this Research Training Group as does the consistent exchange of theoretical foundations and experimental techniques in tandem projects. "This partnership between theory and experiment on a one-to-one basis is a major asset of our Research Training Group, it is our hallmark," emphasized Professor Pol Besenius.

Partners and networks support the Research Training Group

In the second funding phase, the Research Training Group will expand its scientific scope further. The number of PIs has grown from 8 to 12, whereby the newcomers are mainly early career researchers, such as Michael te Vrugt, Professor of Theoretical Physics. "We are looking forward to the new approaches and ideas that our new members are introducing," said Professor Friederike Schmid. Furthermore, the University of Stuttgart will be a new partner in this RTG following the relocation of Professor Thomas Speck, the former RTG spokesperson, from Mainz to Stuttgart.

The Research Training Group 2516 builds on the long-standing strength of research in soft matter at the universities in Mainz, Darmstadt, and Stuttgart and at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research. The cooperation between JGU and TU Darmstadt was recently extended with an additional project. The two partners in the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance started the new international "Soft Matter and Materials" Master's degree program together with the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz.

Six of the leading RTG researchers, including Pol Besenius and Friederike Schmid, are involved in the CoM2Life project, which is short for "Communicating Biomaterials: Convergence Center for Life-Like Soft Materials and Biological Systems". With this project, the universities in Mainz and Darmstadt are applying for the Cluster of Excellence funding line in Germany's Excellence Strategy program.