The Weierstrass Institute is delighted about a major success for Berlin’s mathematics community: The MATH+ Cluster of Excellence will continue to receive funding for another seven years as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. The German Research Foundation (DFG) thus recognizes the outstanding achievements of the previous funding period and underscores Berlin’s international leadership as a center for innovation in applications-oriented mathematics.
MATH+ is supported by Berlin’s three major universities – Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, and Technische Universität – as well as the research institutes Weierstrass Institute (WIAS) and Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB).
At the heart of MATH+ research lies data-driven modeling, simulation, and optimization. The goal is to further develop the interdisciplinary potential of mathematics and effectively address socially relevant challenges. Researchers are working on mathematical foundations for using large-scale datasets in application areas such as energy, mobility, health, and technology. Another major research focus will be the mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence (AI). Here it is of particular importance that all elements of AI can be precisely explained with the help of mathematics.
With its broad range of research approaches and successful collaboration across disciplines and institutions, MATH+ exemplifies the strengths of Berlin as a science hub known for its vast and interconnected research network. Supported by structures such as the Berlin University Alliance (BUA) and Berlin Research 50 (BR50) or the cooperation with the MaRDI consortium (Mathematical Research Data Initiative) within the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI), MATH+ sets standards for interdisciplinary, internationally visible mathematics with societal relevance and handling of large-scale data.
“The Weierstrass Institute will continue to contribute with great commitment to the research and strategic development of MATH+ in the new funding phase,” emphasizes WIAS Director and MATH-Plus Board member Michael Hintermüller. The repeated success in the Excellence Initiative is, in his view, also the result of decades of successful cooperation between Berlin's applied mathematicians across the boundaries of the individual institutions.
