The concept of lightweight design has become more and more important in engineering. Its aim is to reduce the mass of any kind of technical structure to a minimum in order to save resources, costs, and energy during both manufacturing and operation. This often means to make technical components and the whole system more sensitive to unwanted vibrations. This yet inevitable dependence shall now be eliminated by developing novel approaches for influencing vibrations that result from the research of the established Priority Programme “Calm, Smooth and Smart – Novel Approaches for Influencing Vibrations by Means of Deliberately Introduced Dissipation”.

• Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 20 November 2018.
• Further information is available on the DFG website.

The computer of our day-to-day environments offer a plethora of interaction techniques. The shift from interacting with dedicated “computers” to interacting with distributed ensembles of computational devices (so-called pervasive computing environments, PCE) will fundamentally change our understanding of interacting with a “system” in which almost any action turns into “operating a computer.” The overarching research question of the Priority Programme “Scalable Interaction Paradigms for Pervasive Computing Environments” is to understand the nature of interaction with large and complex pervasive computing environments and to explore suitable interaction paradigms.

• Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 1 December 2018.
• Applicants must be registered in elan prior to submitting a proposal to the DFG. If you have not yet registered, please note that you must do so by 15 November 2018 to submit a proposal under this call.
• Further information regarding the programme is available on the DFG website.

Iron-sulfur (FeS) centers are essential protein cofactors in all forms of life. In particular, FeS centers function as enzyme cofactors in catalysis and electron transfer. Understanding the crosstalk of metal ions on a cellular basis requires multidisciplinary and cooperative approaches that span the entire range from cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, inorganic chemistry, spectroscopy, and structural biology to theory. In the Priority Programme “Iron-Sulfur for Life: Cooperative Function of Iron-Sulfur Centers in Assembly, Biosynthesis, Catalysis and Disease” it is planned to study novel enzyme mechanisms, innovative model complexes, and to define the mechanistic basis of the metal center biogenesis pathways in the (patho-)physiological context of living organisms.

• Proposals for the second three-year funding period are now invited and must be written in English and submitted to the DFG via elan by 29 January 2019.
• Applicants must be registered in elan prior to submitting a proposal to the DFG. If you have not yet registered, please note that you must do so by 15 January 2019 to submit a proposal under this call.
• Further information regarding the programme is available on the DFG website.

The Priority Programme “Perovskite Semiconductors: From Fundamental Properties to Devices” (SPP 2196) focuses on the new class of hybrid organic-inorganic lead halide perovskite semiconductors, which have attracted global attention since the first reports on high efficiency perovskite solar cells in mid-2012. It remains unclear why this material class works so exceptionally well in solar cells and which underlying basic mechanisms lead to this extraordinary performance. The main objective of the Priority Programme is to bridge the gap between the application of perovskites and the corresponding fundamental research on this semiconductor regarding correlations between, e.g., structural, optical, electronic, or magnetic properties. The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the first three-year funding period.

• Proposals must be submitted to the DFG by 30 October 2018.
• For further information please visit the DFG website.

The Priority Programme “Nucleotide Second Messenger Signaling in Bacteria” (SPP 1879) represents the first systematic and comprehensive strategy ever to understand all fundamental aspects of nucleotide-based second messenger signaling in bacteria at the molecular level. Biosynthesis, turnover and functions of c-di-GMP, the “classics” cAMP and ppGpp, as well as “newcomers” such as c-di-AMP and others are being studied from molecular, cellular, physiological, systems-level and ecological perspectives. The programme is designed to run for six years. The present call invites proposals for the second three-year funding period.

• Proposals must be written in English and submitted to the DFG by 29 October 2018.
• For further information please visit the DFG website.