Seed Money Projects

Seed Money is meant to transform innovative, creative and new ideas into projects.

This funding scheme aims to identify and support innovative research and development of projects in all fields of the ORIGINS Cluster, where such non-bureaucratic financial support can contribute significantly to knowledge gain and progress. All proposed projects need to be supported by a principal investigator (PI) of the ORIGINS Excellence Cluster.

Application process

All members of the ORIGINS cluster with the status "Principal Investigator" are eligible to apply. Applications can be handed in anytime, with proposals evaluated twice a year. Application deadlines are being sent out to all principal investigators of the ORIGINS Cluster. Please send your application to Alice Smith-Gicklhorn via e-mail until September 30.

As shown in the box on the right-hand side, the selection committee will evaluate submitted applications with a final decision taken by the Research Board. The competitive selection process includes a written application (as outlined in the proposal templates; see box on the right) and a 10-minute oral project presentation. Please take the guidelines for proposal submission of the respective call into account and use the provided proposal templates (see box on the right).


Seed Projects 2024-1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2024-1

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Pathfinder experiment for an intensity interferometry telescope array Razmik Mirzoyan, Thomas Schweizer, David Paneque (MPP), Gayoung Chon (LMU), Hans Böhringer (LMU,MPE) RU-B, RU-D, CN-6  
Cherenkov and Scintillation Light Separation for Hybrid Neutrino Detectors and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Searches Hans Th. J. Steiger, Lothar Oberauer, Stefan Schönert (TUM) RU-B  
MEMS-Based Multi-Pixel Magnetometer: A Test Setup for Enhanced Magnetometry in Fundamental Physics Maximilian Huber, Philipp Wunderl, Florian Kuchler, Peter Fierlinger (TUM) RU-A, RU-B  
Heat-flow driven prebiotic reaction networks Christof Mast, Thomas Matreux, Dieter Braun (LMU) RU-E  
A BabyMOSS telescope Laura Fabbietti, Roman Gernhäuser, (TUM), Oliver Kortner (MPP) CN-7, RU-A  

Seed Projects 2023-2

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2023-2

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Acylphosphate bond to create temporary lipid-based vesicles Job Boekhoven, Oleksii Zozulia (TUM) RU-E  
LavaLamp: fast and highly modifiable Phase-Field simulation API tailored to soft matter physics George Dadunashvili, Alexander Ziepke, Erwin Frey (LMU) CN-8  
Micropattern multi-layer charge spreading pixel detector Ralf Hertenberger, C. Jagfeld, F. Vogel (LS Schaile / AG Biebel LMU) RU-A  
Mockup system for precise reconstruction of magnetic field noise sources for spin-clock experiments Florian Kuchler, Philipp Rößner, Peter Fierlinger (TUM) RU-A, RU-B  

Seed Projects 2023-1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2023-1

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
A Beautyful 3D-Model – Design of a Belle II Detector Model for 3D Printing Thomas Kuhr, Johanna Häusler (LMU) RU-A  
FPGA-based muon veto trigger with requalified ATLAS MDT chambers for low background experiments Sandra Kortner, Federicca Petricca, Davide Cieri, Alexander Langenkämper, Michele Mancuso (MPP) CN-3, RU-A, RU-B  
“One for all” – How an extension to the ODSL computing will support the entire ORIGINS cluster L. Heinrich (TUM, ODSL coordinator), Martin Ha Minh (TUM, ODSL), Rasmus Ørsøe (TUM), Philipp Eller (TUM, ODSL Fellow), Oliver Schulz (MPP, ODSL Fellow) ODSL  
SDD-in-HPGe - Towards a background-free X-ray detector Susanne Mertens, Christoph Wiesinger (TUM) RU-B  

Seed Projects 2022-2

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2022-2

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
ConFCS: Quantifying molecular dynamics in condensates Petra Schwille, Jan-Hagen Krohn (MPIB) RU-E  
Development of a Star Tracker for Observation of a Dedicated Astronomical Target M. Losekamm, P. Hinderberger, S. Paul, S. Rückerl (TUM) LRSM  
FPGA-based fast machine learning triggers for finite 3D-grids of photosensors L. Heinrich (TUM, ODSL coordinator), F. Capel (MPP, ODSL), C. Spannfellner (TUM, ORIGINS) RU-B, CN-6  
MAPS readout development for ITS3 Laura Fabbietti, Roman Gernhäuser (TUM) CN-7, RU-A  
Polarized Ion Exotic Physics Search Peter Fierlinger, Chiara Brandenstein (TUM) RU-A, RU-B  
Neutrino sensitive cryogenic detectors from archaeological Pb for the RES-NOVA project L. Pattavina (TUM), L. Oberauer (TUM), A. Kinast (TUM), M. Mancuso (MPP), R. Strauss (TUM) RU-B, RU-D  
TAXO demonstrator - From deep underground to shallow depth S. Mertens, F. Edzards, C. Wiesinger (TUM) RU-B  

Seed Projects 2022-1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2022-1

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Touching the sky - 3D printing astrophysical simulation data T. Birnstiel, E. Zhu, K. Dolag (LMU) RU-D, CN-2  

Seed Projects 2021 - 2

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2021-2

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Determination of sequence-dependent UV sensitivity of RNA polymers by next generation sequencing D. Braun, C. Mast (LMU) RU-E  
Elucidating the role of early life in the evolution of organic carbon compounds P. Schwille and D. Kanaparthi (MPIB), Oliver Trapp (LMU) RU-E, CN-2  
A focused Cluster workshop on the Hubble tension Bruno Leibundgut, ESO, Sherry Suyu, MPA/TUM, Wolfgang Hillebrandt, MPA, Stéphane Blondin, LAM/ORIGINS visitor RU-C, CN-4  
Enhanced detection efficiency for X-ray and Gamma tracking by extended drift geometries in micropattern detectors K. Penski, R. Hertenberger, O. Biebel, C. Jagfeld, M. Rinnagel, F. Vogel, (LS Schaile, LMU) RU-A  
Mesophere Magnetometry P. Fierlinger, M. Losekamm, S. Paul (TUM) LRSM  
LArBox - A glovebox facility for characterizing cryogenic electronics in liquid Argon M. Willers, S. Schönert, S. Mertens (TUM & MPP) RU-B  

Seed Projects 2021-1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2021-1

Project title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Chemical Mitosis Oliver Trapp (LMU) RU-E  
A compact and triggerless multi-channel sampling ADC for particle detectors Igor Konorov, Stefan Huber, Thomas Pöschl, Martin Losekamm, Jan Friedrich, Stephan Paul (all TUM) RU-A, RU-B, LRSM  
Electret micro pattern gaseous detector Christoph Jagfeld, Otmar Biebel, Ralf Hertenberger, Herrmann Klitzner, Maximilian Rinnagel (all LMU) RU-A  
Spin-sensitive ultra-cold neutron detection Hanno Filter, Peter Fierlinger (TUM) RU-A  
Meanders to count neutrons Roman Gernhäuser, Peter Fierlinger (TUM) RU-A  
Interactive visualization of 3D Galactic Dust Maps Reimar Leike, Torsten Enßlin RU-D  

Seed Projects 2020 - 2

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2020-2

Project Title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Noise cancellation with FPGAs Stefan Stuiber, Peter Fierlinger RU-A  
Tests of Silicon Detectors for Precision Beta Spectroscopy in Neutron Decay Manuel Lebert (TUM), Bastian Märkisch (TUM), Susanne Mertens (MPP & TUM) RU-A, RU-B  
Diamond detectors for low-mass dark matter searches L. Canonica (MPP), F. Petricca (MPP, PI), S.Schönert (TUM, PI) RU-B  
Feasibility Study of Magnetic Shielding for the LiteBIRD Cosmic Microwave Background Satellite Mission Frank Grupp (LMU), Eiichiro Komatsu (MPA), Jochen Weller (LMU) RU-C  
A Distributed Fault-Tolerant Command and Data Handling System for Highly Reliable Nanosatellites Martin Losekamm, Sebastian Rückerl, Ulrich Walter, Stephan Paul (all TUM) LRSM  
Determining the Temperature-Dependent Light Yield of Scintillators used for LRSM Science Missions Martin Losekamm, Thomas Pöschl, Stephan Paul (TUM), Susanne Mertens (MPP), Jochen Greiner (MPE) LRSM  

Seed Projects 2020 - 1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2020-1

Project Title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Trade-off study of an Anger camera Jochen Greiner (MPE), Elisa Resconi (TUM) LRSM, CN-7, RU-B  
Large Area Photon Detection With High Efficiency and High Position Resolution Ralf Hertenberger (LMU), Otmar Biebel (LMU), B. Flierl (LMU), M. Rinnagel (LMU) RU-A  
AutoLab: Automation of a wet-lab for the Origins cluster Job Boekhoven (TUM) RU-E, CN-8, CN-5  
Development of archaeological Pb cryogenic detectors for Supernova neutrino detection Luca Pattavina (TUM), F. Capozzi (MPP), N. Ferreiro (MPP), A. Kinast (TUM), L. Oberauer (TUM, Origins PI), R. Strauss (TUM), I. Tamborra (MPP) RU-B, RU-D  
Computational Efficient Differential Equations in the Latent Space for CPU-demanding Thermochemical Models of Protoplanetary Disks Tommaso Grassi, Giovanni Picogna (presenter), Barbara Ercolano (USM) RU-D, CN-2, ODSL  

Seed Projects 2019 - 1

Successful Seed Project applications for the call 2019-1

Project Title Principal and Co-Investigators RU / CN  
Development of an advanced detector for metastable Hydrogen atoms (H(2s)) from the bound neutron decay (BOB) E. Gutsmiedl, S. Paul, W. Schott (TUM) RU-A  
GEM-based prototype for the NA60+ muon tracker T. Dahms, L. Fabbietti, P. Gasik, B. Ulukutlu (TUM) RU-A, CN-7  
Triggerless Data-Acquisition for Precision Beta Spectroscopy B. Märkisch, I. Konorov, S. Huber, H. Saul (TUM) RU-A, RU-B  
Another STRAW in the Pacific Ocean: the second path finder mission for the Pacific Ocean Neutrino Explorer E. Resconi, R. Gernhäuser (TUM) RU-B, CN-6  
Demonstrating the feasibility of a low-background Silicon Drift Detector system for IAXO S. Mertens (MPP), T. Houdy RU-B  
LESS: Let the Simulations Shine K. Dolag, A. Obreja (USM), E. Emsellem (ESO), M. Petkova (C2PAP) R. Remus (USM), R Dominguez-Tenreiro (UAM) RU-D  
Establishing Additive Manufacturing Methods for future Astronomical Instrumentation M. Fabricius (MPE), F. Grupp (MPE), F. Lang-Bardl (USM), U. Hopp (USM), R. Bender (USM/MPE) RU-D  
The origins of homochirality J. Boekhoven (TUM) RU-E, CN-8, CN-5  
Twinkle observations of PAHs in the atmospheres of planet forming discs B. Ercolano (USM), Th. Preibisch (USM), L. Testi (ESO) RU-E