Research
Incubator for Interdisciplinary Research
Research at FRIAS is based on funding programmes and is conducted on a temporary basis. Not limited to fixed themes or research fields, FRIAS is open to ideas from all disciplines. It provides an environment where researchers from around the globe can pursue their projects with complete intellectual freedom. Interdisciplinary exchange is particularly encouraged to open up new perspectives and to pose questions that might not be raised in conventional research contexts.
Fellow Projects
Fellow projects cover a wide academic spectrum, from the functioning of immune cells in the airways to the tradition of Quranic writing in Southeast Asia. FRIAS events bring fellows together for interdisciplinary exchange. A key challenge is making their often highly specialized research accessible to a broader audience. Through this exchange, fellows gain new perspectives on their work that they might not encounter in other contexts. The following page provides an overview of the current cohort of fellows.
Freiburg Postdoctoral Academy
The Freiburg Postdoctoral Academy (FPA) brings together early-career researchers from all disciplines in the humanities and life sciences. It is organized into three thematic pillars, reflecting the University of Freiburg’s core research areas. The Young Academy for Sustainability Research (YAS) is an interdisciplinary platform for researchers in the field of sustainability. The Young Academy for Cultures and Societies in Space and Time (YAC) focuses on the humanities, using historical and contemporary approaches to create knowledge that is relevant for understanding and overcoming – and putting into perspective – the problems and challenges of the present. The third academy on ‘Signals of Life’, scheduled to launch in 2027, will focus on gaining a precise understanding of the biological signals at the basis of the life of all cells and organisms, to provide solutions for many biological and medical challenges.
Group Projects
Balzan-FRIAS Project
in Global History
What is Global History? Led by renowned historian and Balzan Laureate Jürgen Osterhammel, this project explores the foundations of global history over the past three decades. The project pays special attention to how we study and imagine global history, the often overlooked ideas behind it, its political importance for different groups, and how global events have influenced specific regions, particularly since the 18th century. This initiative brings together young scholars, hosts public lectures with leading historians, and organizes exclusive workshops to tackle the big questions in global history.
Period of Funding: 2018-2025
Human Rights
Research Consortium
The Connecticut / Baden-Württemberg Human Rights Research Consortium (HRRC) provides a platform to promote and support academic collaboration between researchers and research groups at universities and other research institutions in the State of Connecticut (USA) and the Land Baden-Württemberg (Germany). The Consortium is designed to serve as an incubator for diverse and interdisciplinary human rights research projects, generate critical knowledge on key human rights-related issues, and disseminate its findings.
Period of Funding: 2019-2026
Post War Periods
While many studies on the aftermaths of war focus on Europe and the Western world in the 20th century, this Project Group is shifting the perspective to diverse cultural and historical contexts, from antiquity to the present. Bringing together researchers from law, history, and literature, the group aims to understand post-war periods not merely as transitions from war to peace. Instead, they mark a specific ‘in-between’ phase, characterized by contradictory dynamics.
Period of Funding: 2024-2025
Glass Age
Glass is of one of humankind’s earliest high performance materials the importance of which has only grown with time. The history of this material has been closely linked to the cultural context. A FRIAS Project Group of researchers from fields as diverse as archaeology, literature, and microsystems engineering explore the cultural and historic context of glass and the breakthroughs and asks how the know-how of past cultures can inspire modern material developments.
Period of Funding: 2024-2025
Previous Research
Below is a list of research groups at FRIAS from recent years. To learn more about past research projects at FRIAS, visit our Fellow Finder or the overview page of our Former Programmes.
FRIAS Saltus! Group Responsible Artificial Intelligence
Period of Funding: 2018-2019
The Focus Group continued the research with additional funding from the University.
Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Environmental Conflict and Related Migration
Period of Funding: 2017-2018
Cohomology in
Algebraic Geometry and Representation Theory
Period of Funding: 2017-2018
Neural networks of motor control and motor learning
Period of Funding: 2015-2016
Dynamic alignments and dealignments in global Southeast Asia
Period of Funding: 2014-2015