From July 1998 onwards, the DFG will fund a total of 266 collaborative research centres at 58 universities with about DM 548 million. The large number of initiatives to set up collaborative research centres has remained unchanged. Equally high is the number of applications rejected after very strict review and assessment. In the last round of decision-making, for instance, seven out of a total of 21 applications were unsuccessful. Scientists may cooperate with non-university research institutions and also with industry.
Young scientists are to be given a greater opportunity to manage their own sub-projects.
Under the umbrella of a new conception of cultural studies arts scholars and natural scientists will cooperate to study the material and immaterial bases, the social structures and the interaction of politics, industry, science and the arts in Weimar-Jena in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and identify their importance for today's cultural discussion. Biology and medicine Like wild plants crop plants also compete for light, nutrients and water. In this process strongly growing, highly competitive plants often seem to be more susceptible to parasitic infestation than plants with a weak growth. They will aim at identifying laws and regularities underlying the ecological fitness of crop plants. Cells have specific receptors enabling them to respond to external stimuli such as hormones, growth factors or other messenger substances.