As a central scientific institution, CENIDE represents a research profile of the University of Duisburg-Essen. It forms an interdisciplinary network of creative minds that promotes interdisciplinary cooperation and helps bridge the gap between basic academic research and industrial implementation. CENIDE coordinates and promotes scientific progress in chemistry, physics, engineering, biology and medicine with a focus on catalysis, dynamic processes in solids, gas phase synthesis of nanomaterials, magnetic materials, nanomaterials for health and nanotechnology in energy applications.

The NanoEnergieTechnik-Zentrum (NETZ), is part of the Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CENIDE). Here physicists, chemists and engineers research new materials for energy applications and develop scalable processes for their production and processing. For this purpose, the researchers in NETZ map the entire chain from the synthesis of nanomaterials and their connection to macroscopic structures to demonstrators and components. The NETZ is the hub for scientists from the University of Duisburg-Essen and cooperating institutions working on nano-energy.

The ELH Institute is dedicated to the research, development and application of ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging (UHF-MRI), especially in the cognitive neurosciences and in clinical diagnostic imaging. The heart of the ELH Institute is a whole-body magnetic resonance tomograph from Siemens Healthcare, which operates with a magnetic field strength of 7 Tesla, making it the strongest magnet in the entire Ruhr area. One of the main goals of the ELH-Institute with its technical and methodological developments is to apply the advantages of UHF-MRI from neuro-imaging to the entire human body and to promote the dissemination and application of this technology. For this purpose the institute provides an excellent research infrastructure for different research groups and cooperates very closely with different academic as well as industrial partners.

The DFG Instrument Center ICAN at the University of Duisburg-Essen combines instruments, methods and expertise in nanoscale analysis. Here, basic scientific research flows into the application-oriented development of new materials. This requires extensive analytical methods to optimize the processing and structure of materials and to understand the underlying mechanisms. Only in this way can tailor-made materials with defined properties be produced in a targeted manner. Studies of this kind require an unusual combination of expertise and experimental facilities.

Complex numerical calculations are performed in numerous working groups, institutes and research groups at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The CCSS provides the basis for multidisciplinary cooperation, which has been established at the interface between the basic disciplines. "Computational Science and Engineering" and "Scientific Computing" are seen in the CCSS in close interaction with both theoretical-analytical and experimental-technological oriented research. The scientific work is based on interdisciplinary cooperation in modeling, simulation and experimental verification. The CCSS networks the activities of the participating research groups and helps to open up new fields of application with highly topical issues.

In times of climate change and energy system transformation, scientific approaches are particularly important in order to find new sustainable ways of energy conversion and use and to assess their consequences. In addition to scientific and technological aspects, economic, sociological, psychological and ethical issues are at least as important for a socially accepted success of the change. CER.UDE bundles energy research across disciplines and faculties to ensure a regular intensive exchange among scientists, which is reflected in lecture series and cooperative projects. In addition, researchers from CER.UDE work together in projects such as the DFG Research Group 1993 "Mutifunctional Material and Energy Conversion" or the NanoEnergieTechnikZentrum (NETZ) on concepts for future energy conversion and storage.

As a university centre of excellence, the ZLV is dedicated to the interdisciplinary conception, management and transfer of scientific work in connection with logistics, mobility and transport from various disciplines. The design of future supply and value-added chains, energy-efficient transport systems or infrastructures and the recycling of valuable materials play just as much a role as methods of business mathematics in and between companies, logistic systems in humanitarian aid or the control of the mobility behaviour of young people. The ZLV focuses on long-term sustainable, economically beneficial, socially acceptable and ecologically safe innovations (sustainability research).

The ZWU is an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research center. It coordinates the UDE profile focus on water research and pools the experience, expertise and resources in water and environmental research. ZWU stands for innovative environmental research that links global societal changes and challenges - such as urbanization and megacities, climate change, water availability and quality - with the environment and focuses on the impact on people. ZWU's activities focus on water research with a broad range of expertise in the fields of water ecology, drinking water treatment and distribution, environmental toxicology and chemistry, water and urban water management, hydrology, hydraulic engineering and water governance with economic and legal competencies.