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The Rectorate’s Office has launched three new internal funding lines – IDEAS, START and ADVANCED – which support innovative ideas, new collaborations and competitive research proposals. In an interview with Kathrin Kottke, Prof Dr Monika Stoll, Vice-Rector for Research, explains why unconventional ideas deserve a chance, why failure is part and parcel of research, and why sometimes it comes down to drawing lots.

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has awarded Dr. Robin J. Sroka with approximately 1.3 million euros in funding as part of the Emmy Noether Programme. Over the next six years, this will enable the mathematician to establish his own research group “Cohomology and K-Theory: Exploring New Connections”.

Located on Scharnhorststraße, and sitting behind unremarkable walls and along tidy corridors, the staff in the central examinations offices perform invaluable work. They offer support for undergraduates and PhD students at the University of Münster, from the first to the last examinations they take.

Fossilised wood from the Kyffhäuser has proved to be a previously unknown geoarchive. Tiny quartz crystals have preserved the temperatures and depths to which the tree trunks were exposed over the course of 300 million years. With the help of these inclusions, a research team led by the University of Münster has been able to reconstruct the development of our continent.

The University of Münster will soon see a change in management. The University Electoral Assembly overwhelmingly confirmed the appointment of Prof Dr Ulrike Weyland as vice-rector, and elected Prof Dr Sven G. Meuth and Prof Dr Benjamin Risse as new vice-rectors. On 1 October, Prof Dr Susanne Menzel-Riedl will replace Prof Dr Johannes Wessels as the new University Rector.

Our youngest members of society are becoming regular users of digital media which can confront them with problematic role models. The international and interdisciplinary research network “G+Media” is investigating to what extent educational media contributes to discrimination so that it can counteract it at an early stage.

The battery recycling industry must massively expand its capacity and cope with the fact that the complexity of the batteries being returned is increasing significantly. This is shown by a new study involving researchers from the Institute of Business Chemistry at the University of Münster.

Researchers led by Professor Iris Finkemeier from the Institute of Plant Biology and Biotechnology discovered a specific chemical mark in the ‘histone code’ of thale cress that is responsible for adaptation to salt stress.

A team led by chemist Professor Frank Glorius from the Institute of Organic Chemistry has developed a new light-driven reaction sequence that enables the synthesis of complex three-dimensional molecular structures.

In Münster it rains, or the bells ring, as the saying goes. How much truth is there in this? In this interview, micrometeorologist Dr Toprak Aslan from the “Biosphere-Atmosphere Interaction” research group explains the typical weather in Münster and what practical insights can be drawn from it.

In the event of a severe heart attack, immature immune cells are released into the bloodstream from the bone marrow. A research team led by the University of Münster has demonstrated that the maturity level of neutrophils can be used to determine the short-term risk of death, and this can be assessed through a simple blood test.

Professor Lydia Sorokin from the Institute of Physiological Chemistry and Pathobiochemistry has been awarded an ‘ERC Proof of Concept Grant’ worth 150,000 euros to further develop a new model of the blood-brain barrier for use in research.