41st round of the UDE Postdoc Seed Fundings
Two research projects have been awarded funding
- von Nathalie Bieler
- 23.07.2026
How can materials in gas turbines be used for longer? And what role did anxiety play in the emergence of colonial systems of knowledge? These are the diverse research questions addressed by the two projects receiving funding in the 41st round of the UDE Postdoc Seed Fundings scheme.
Through the UDE Postdoc Seed Funding scheme, the University of Duisburg-Essen supports outstanding research projects of early career researchers. In the 41st funding round, two researchers from the fields of engineering and the humanities are receiving a total of 49,620 euros to further develop their projects and lay the foundations for future applications for third-party funding.
The funded projects:
High-temperature materials in gas turbines are currently often replaced preventively, as there is no reliable non-destructive method to assess their ageing condition. This is precisely where the project ‘Transport measurements for the non-destructive determination of ageing in materials for gas turbines’ by Dr Klara Lünser (Faculty of Engineering, Institute for Energy and Material Processes – Applied Quantum Materials) comes in: the researcher is developing a method based on electrical transport measurements to detect material changes caused by ageing. This approach could extend lifetimes of gas turbines and thus conserve resources (grant amount: €19,620).
Anxiety is not only one of the most common mental health issues worldwide today – it also played a defining role in the emergence of the colonial world order in the early modern period. In her project ‘Uneasy Encounters: Anxiety in the Colonial Archive, 1492–1740’, Dr Sonja Pyykkö (Faculty of Humanities, Anglophone Studies) investigates anxiety as an epistemic emotion that shaped how colonial subjects understood themselves in relation to each other and their environment. The project combines the history of emotions with postcolonial literary and cultural studies and opens up new perspectives on colonial systems of knowledge (grant amount: €30,000).
Note:
The 42nd call for applications for the UDE Postdoc Seed Funding has been launched. Applications may be submitted until 25 September 2026. Contact: Simon Kresmann (phone: +49 201 1832015, mail: simon.kresmann@uni-due.de)
More information and forms:
https://www.uni-due.de/gcplus/en/postdoc_seed_funding.php
Editor: Nathalie Bieler, Science Support Center of the UDE, Tel.: +49 201 1833647,nathalie.bieler@uni-due.de