Green light for phase 2: expansion of the CFEA is progressing

Following the successful completion of the first three-year funding phase, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the second funding phase for the establishment of the Core Facility Environmental Analytics (CFEA) at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences. The DFG will support the further development from April 1, 2024 for two years with around 440,000 euros. In addition, the University Executive Board of TU Dresden confirmed the regulations for the management and operation of the CFEA as a scientific institution of the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at its meeting on January 30, 2024, thus reaching another milestone in the longer-term anchoring of the CFEA within the structures of the TUD. The support of the DFG and the university management underlines the importance of the CFEA for the research landscape and reaffirms the commitment to excellent, collaborative science.

In the 3-year funding phase to date, it has been possible to establish administrative structures and processes for the CFEA that enable both internal and external national and international scientists to access the extensive instruments, methods and expertise in the field of environmental sciences and to integrate them effectively into their research. The CFEA has set up numerous formats for consultation and knowledge transfer in the field of environmental analysis. In addition to individual consultations with potential users, these include regular workshops on analytical topics, laboratory tours for interdisciplinary exchange and the supervision of interdisciplinary theses with a strong analytical focus. Furthermore, an international symposium on dating methods in the environmental sciences was organized and held in 2023. At the same time, networking and integration into numerous regional, national and international networks took place. Measures to improve quality assurance and quality management were also implemented. The successful establishment of the CFEA was an important step towards overcoming fragmentation in environmental research at TU Dresden.

In the second phase, the CFEA is to be consolidated in order to give integrative environmental research a strong impetus at national and international level. To this end, the CFEA will be further expanded, the range of consulting and services will be extended, integrative forms of data evaluation will be increasingly implemented and the introduction of new approaches to research data management will be tested.