The Einstein Foundation Berlin has agreed to fund the creation of an Einstein Center for Mathematics Berlin (ECMath). ECMath will be the first centre in the new Einstein Center programme. An application has been submitted for €8 million in funding for the period 2013-2017. 

The funding decision was made based on the recommendation of the Scientific Commission. It was the commission’s responsibility to judge the proposal on its scientific excellence and its importance for Berlin as a research hub. To do this, it invited a group of highly regarded international experts to Berlin to conduct a two-day assessment. The experts attested that the joint proposal put forward by the Technische Universität Berlin, the Freie Universität Berlin, the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Weierstrass Institute for Applied Analysis and Stochastics (WIAS) and the Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin (ZIB) was of outstanding international importance.

Three successful mathematical institutions in Berlin – the DFG research centre MATHEON, the Berlin Mathematical School and the German Center for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) – will collaborate under the roof of the Einstein Center for Mathematics in 2014. The first phase of preparations will begin in early 2013. Professor Günter Stock, vice chairman of the Einstein Foundation, says, “the Einstein Center for Mathematics promises to be even greater than the sum of its parts. By successfully pooling the performance, success and expertise of each of the component institutions, it will be able to take on new challenges and ensure that Berlin lives up to its reputation as a world-class location for mathematics.”

The center will carry out application-oriented basic research in areas of innovation ranging from clinical research and health care to renewable energies, metropolitan infrastructure and optical technologies. In addition to this, it will focus on the ongoing expansion of established structures both within science and research and at the interface with external partners.

The new Einstein Center programme, the flagship in the Foundation’s programme portfolio, will strengthen the position of Berlin’s universities in the national and the international academic community. The programme offers top Berlin research consortia with existing third-party funding (such as clusters of excellence, graduate schools and DFG research centers) the opportunity to apply to become an Einstein Center and establish cross-institutional research and teaching networks.

They will enhance cooperation among outstanding scientists and provide a secure framework for their collaboration in the medium term. “The Einstein Center for Mathematics will be an international beacon of outstanding Berlin-based research and a showcase of the region’s efforts to promote scientific research of the highest standard. There is no other centre like it elsewhere. It will permanently establish Berlin as a world leader in mathematics,” says Sandra Scheeres, Berlin Senator for Education, Youth and Science.