Mental illnesses are becoming more and more accepted in society. With the new LOEWE Centre DYNAMIC, research in this field is also set to change to a certain extent. The aim is "no longer to look for simple explanations for mental illness, but to accept the complex interrelationships and make them the subject of research". This is what the research network, led by Philipps University Marburg and Goethe University Frankfurt, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Technical University Darmstadt, the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education DIPF and the Ernst Strüngmann Institute for Neurosciences ESI as partners, aims to achieve over the next four years with LOEWE funding totalling 14.7 million euros. 

At a kick-off event attended by around 50 scientists, new projects were prepared on the basis of the basic idea. LOEWE Centre spokesperson Professor Dr Winfried Rief is delighted that the project can finally get underway following last year's funding approval: "We have been preparing intensively for this point in time, establishing and expanding collaborations and exploring innovative approaches both nationally and internationally."

In addition to looking at the complex interrelationships of the human brain, the collaboration between clinical psychology and psychiatry is also a special feature of the research network. There are far more synergy effects here than we have previously utilised in science, including in Hesse. We therefore see great potential here not only for science, but also for patient care," explains the centre's co-spokesperson, Frankfurt psychiatrist Professor Dr Andreas Reif.