History

In 2005, the Bernstein Center Munich started out with eight Principal Investigators (theory groups: A. Borst, S. Glasauer, J.L. van Hemmen; experimental groups: A. Borst, T. Brandt, U. Büttner, B. Grothe; technical groups: G. Färber, W. Hemmert) that had teamed up to mainly carry out interdisciplinary tandem-projects with multiple interactions. Based on funding from the BMBF and long-term support by the Technical University Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LUM) two new Faculty Positions were established that were filled with Werner Hemmert (TUM) and Christian Leibold (LMU).

By the end of the first five-year BMBF funding period, the Bernstein Center Munich had grown to 17 Principal Investigators at LMU, TUM, MPI and Infineon; in parallel, its scientific scope expanded greatly and numerous papers had been published. Therefore, the Center has been able to play a key role in establishing, shaping and supporting new closely related collaborative research and training centers – from basic neuroscience to technical application and towards clinical translation. This has resulted in a large and dense research network in the Munich area with a strong computational neuroscience component whose further development is supported by a second BMBF grant that will fund the Center until 2015 as well as various sustainability measures of the host institutions.