Transdisciplinary Research Area 'Individuals, Institutions and Societies'

We eat too much meat in Germany and this not only has a negative impact on health but is also damaging for the environment and climate. Cafeteria owners are increasingly open to the idea of serving smaller portions of meat – especially for cost reasons. But how do you encourage their customers to choose smaller portions of meat? Researchers at the University of Bonn have been investigating this question at a cafeteria in a rehabilitation clinic. The desired effect was the biggest when the team at the cafeteria simply served smaller portions of meat and only topped them up when this was requested by customers. This approach was also largely accepted by patrons. The results have now been published in the journal “Environment and Behavior.”

There have never been so many ERC Starting Grants at once at the University of Bonn: no fewer than seven researchers have been successful with their applications in the highly competitive European Research Council (ERC) funding process. With their funding of some €1.5 million each, the researchers from the fields of ethics, mathematics, economics, soil science, computer science and astronomy will be able to realize their projects over the next five years.

What happens when we look at a late antique image? In what order does our gaze wander over the individual elements? Where does it linger? What bodily reactions do such images or early Christian narratives trigger in us? Attempts to answer questions like this are going well beyond merely interpreting early Christian works. A research project embarked on by the University of Bonn together with the University of St Andrews is now bringing Ancient Studies and Cognitive Science together. One key theme is immersion, a concept usually associated more with the world of gaming. 

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has given its approval for a new Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences and a Research Unit at the University of Bonn. In the Finance and Inequality Centre for Advanced Studies, the researchers led by Professor Christian Bayer and Professor Carsten Burhop are looking at the relationship between the growth of the financial sector and inequality from a historical angle. In the field of mathematical physics, meanwhile, Professor Claude Duhr is the speaker for a new Research Unit for particle physics. The DFG will be funding the two projects to the tune of several million euros over the next four years.