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The topics range from drought adaptation to personalized medical technology: Approximately €38 million in research funding will be allocated to excellent and innovative research projects in the 18th round of funding. One LOEWE Center and four LOEWE Research Clusters will receive a total of approximately €35 million for a period of four years. In addition, ten exploration projects will receive a total of approximately €2.88 million in funding in the corresponding sixth call for proposals. The LOEWE Administrative Commission made this decision based on the evaluations of the external experts and the recommendations of the LOEWE Program Advisory Board.

All five Hessian universities are involved in the research projects, as well as the Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe, the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, and the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research. Funding begins on January 1, 2026. LOEWE is also supporting ten highly innovative and bold research ideas with approximately €3 million as part of the 6th call for proposals in the funding line "LOEWE Exploration".

"In the new LOEWE projects, universities and research institutes are collaborating to deliver excellent, pioneering research. LOEWE research addresses humanity's most urgent challenges," said Timon Gremmels, the Hessian Minister of Science and Research. "I am particularly pleased that social sciences and humanities are well represented in this funding round – this demonstrates their relevance: The coexistence of different religions and anti-feminisms are addressing issues that are at the heart of many conflicts. The projects on water management in times of drought, personalized cancer therapy for children, and the medical potential of lipids bridge the gap to application-oriented research, which is particularly prevalent in Hesse in the life sciences. LOEWE is thus strengthening Hesse as a location for cutting-edge research."

Prof. Dr. Stefan Treue, Chairman of the LOEWE Program Advisory Board, explains: "The newly selected LOEWE research clusters and the new LOEWE Center have the potential to generate highly relevant results that are significant far beyond the scientific community. How do we shape our interactions? How do we defy climate change? How can we improve medical therapies? LOEWE supports the search for answers to these questions. By supporting ten new exploration projects, LOEWE is promoting particularly innovative approaches that are capable of laying the foundations for future groundbreaking discoveries."

The LOEWE Center and the LOEWE Research Clusters in detail:

LOEWE Center DynaRel (Dynamics of Religion: Ambivalent Adjacencies between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Historical and Contemporary Constellations). Lead: Goethe University Frankfurt. Partners: Philipps University Marburg, Justus Liebig University Giessen. LOEWE funding: approximately 19 million euros.

LOEWE Research Cluster Lipid Space. Temporally and spatially resolved regulation of tissue homeostasis by lipids in the micro- and nano-environment. Lead: Goethe University Frankfurt. Partners: Justus Liebig University Giessen, Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, MPI for Heart and Lung Research in Bad Nauheim. LOEWE funding: approximately €4.3 million.

LOEWE Research Cluster ADAPT (Adaptation to Drought and Extremes: The Surface-Soil-Groundwater Buffer under Climate Stress). Lead: University of Kassel. Partner: Justus Liebig University Giessen. LOEWE funding: approximately €4.1 million.

LOEWE Research Cluster MultiDrug-TDM (Personalized Medical Technology for Therapeutic Drug Monitoring at the Point-of-Care in Pediatric Oncology). Lead: TU Darmstadt. Partner: Goethe University Frankfurt. LOEWE funding: approximately €4.3 million.

LOEWE Research Cluster GenDem (Interweaving Antifeminisms: Gender, Democracy, and Authoritarianism in 'Entangled Modernities'). Lead: Philipps University Marburg. Partners: Justus Liebig University Giessen, Herder Institute for Historical Research on East Central Europe. LOEWE funding: approximately €3.6 million