Research Units

Recognizing and describing lexical semantic change is a fundamental task for the humanities, but modern computational methods encounter significant obstacles in this regard. Large language models (LLMs) are powerful, but they require huge training corpora that are not available in the low-resource domains of historical and specialized humanities research. This limits the practical applicability and scientific value of the computational methods for analyzing language change that have been researched in recent years. The interdisciplinary research group SILD (Semantic shifts In Low-resource Domains) was conceived to overcome these problems. By bringing together researchers from different disciplines such as Natural Language Processing (NLP), Visual Analytics, and Computational Humanities, SILD will develop novel methods for detecting semantic change that are data-efficient, interpretable, and tailored to real humanities research questions. Our focus extends beyond individual words to the analysis of multi-word expressions (MWEs), which are crucial carriers of historical and cultural meaning. A key technical innovation is the close integration of LLMs with structured domain knowledge (e.g., from historical dictionaries) represented in knowledge graphs (KGs) to improve language representations in data-poor environments. SILD's joint work program is structured in a cyclical workflow of three interacting project groups. Three projects from the computational humanities (CH) form the basis and provide corpora from low-resource domains, evaluation data, and subject expertise from the diachronic study of Hong Kong English (linguistics), early modern German drama (literary studies), and medieval Arabic-Latin scientific translations (philosophy). Three NLP projects use this data and KGs to develop integrated, sample-efficient language models and robust methods for identifying single-word and multi-word expressions. Two transfer projects bridge the gap between NLP and CH by creating visual analytics tools for exploring and interpreting the models and developing a metamodel of semantic change to guide the analysis of meaning and the evaluation. The project will create valuable, freely accessible resources, including annotated corpora, linguistic KGs, evaluation datasets, and domain-adapted LLMs, as well as new methods for creating, analyzing, and visualizing LLMs for powerful semantic analysis in low-resource domains. The project is thus pioneering new computer-assisted methods and state-of-the-art models for a new, application-oriented paradigm in computational humanities.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Fotis Jannidis (Institute of German Philology)

Duration: since 2026

Further information can be found here.

In environmental and geosciences, the size and heterogeneity of data make data analysis extremely challenging. Experience shows that data analysis workflows are often designed for specific scenarios and applications and used within a single research group or organization. The research group “SOS: Serverless Scientific Computing and Engineering for Earth Observation and Sustainability Research” aims to develop a platform for environmental and geosciences that enables researchers to interlink and perform complex data analyses without having to deal with programming or technical details such as resource management or reproducibility. In the long term, this platform is intended to become a central tool for the entire community, supporting the transition to Big Data Science.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Samuel Kounev (Chair of Computer Science II (Software Engineering))

Duration: since 2024

Further information can be found here.

Natural forests form a diverse mosaic, with variability in environmental conditions and species composition determining the functions of this ecosystem. The recently observed consistent loss of this diversity indicates increasingly homogeneous communities in patches of landscapes, caused by an intensification of land use. To assess the impact of this homogenization and to develop guidelines to reverse its potentially adverse effects, FOR 5375 combines expertise in forest science, ecology, remote sensing, chemical ecology and statistics. Specifically, the scientists involved are aiming to investigate whether improving the structural complexity can in turn improve the biodiversity and multifunctionality of production forests.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jörg Müller (Chair of Zoology III - Animal Ecology)

Duration: since 2022

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Creating and promoting lasting knowledge is a major goal of education. Educational institutions (e.g. schools and universities) are expected to enable learners to acquire knowledge that is preserved for a long time and which can be use flexibly whenever needed. Research so far, however, has mainly focussed on the acquisition of knowledge over a relatively short time scale. The overarching goal of FOR 5254 is therefore to contribute to the development of a theoretical framework of lasting learning in real-world learning settings.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Tobias Richter (Chair of Psychology IV)

Duration: since 2022

Further information can be found here.

Active galactic nuclei (AGN) are able to produce collimated and strongly relativistic outflows. These so-called AGN jets are central objects in modern astroparticle physics and the question of their formation is closely linked to fundamental physical questions. Nevertheless, fundamental questions of AGN jet physics are currently unresolved. The research unit FOR 5195 therefore aims to find answers to these questions in the light of groundbreaking new observations made with the most modern large-scale astronomical equipment.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Matthias Kadler (Institute for Theoretical Physics and Astrophysics)

Duration: since 2021

Further information can be found here.

The nucleus of statehood lies at the local level, in the village, in the district, in the neighborhood. Here, a community beyond the family first develops collective rules intended to ensure its continued existence. In most cases, however, not only this control level is available. Supra-local power formations – from regional alliances to empires – stand above them, which complement or compete with the offers of local order. According to the premise of this research unit, local self-regulation is particularly diverse and pronounced when supra-local statehood exists in the mode of weak penetration. How local self-regulation works in this context is the central research question of FOR 2757.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Rene Pfeilschifter (Institute of History)

Duration: since 2019

Further information can be found here.

Texts labeled as ‘magical’ in modern scholarship figure prominently in the written legacy of all ancient cultures in West Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, presenting a key source for the history of religions and ideas in antiquity. Egyptian and Greek papyri, cuneiform texts in various languages, and many other texts transmit ritual instructions, recitations, and recipes, but also explanatory texts of various kinds and written documents that were themselves part of magical ritual practices. The texts shed light on religious beliefs, concepts of the world, learned traditions, and early forms of science. They provide insight into social and cultural norms, but also conflicts and the precarious existence of the individual in pre-modern societies. The Centre for Advanced Studies (Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe: KFG) MagEIA is dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of these textual traditions.

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Daniel Schwemer (Institute of Classical and Ancient Studies)

Duration: since 2023

Further information can be found here.

Self-organization and horizontal binding forces: local authorities in ancient Judaism from the 6th century BC to the 1st century AD

Direction: Prof. Dr. Barbara Schmitz (Chair of Old Testament)

Horizontal binding forces, state regulation and local civil society: the city of Rome and western Asia Minor in the late Republic

Direction: Prof. Dr. Rene Pfeilschifter (Chair of Ancient History)

Monasticism and local self-organization: monastic letters, horizontal binding forces, and urban community in late antiquity

Direction: Prof. Dr. Jan Stenger (Institute of Classical Philology)

Duration: since 2023

Further information can be found here.