EXC 1077: Hearing for All: Models, Technology and Solutions for Diagnostics, Restoration and Support of Hearing

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The vision of the interdisciplinary Cluster of Excellence is to achieve better hearing for individuals with various degrees of hearing impairment (constituting more than 18 percent of the total population and about 50 per cent of all people above 65). The Cluster of Excellence thus addresses the substantial need for functional individualised hearing devices in our ageing communication-driven society that support speech communication in everyday life. The principal investigators (PIs) strive to attain this goal by developing new diagnostic tools and a pathophysiology-based individualised therapeutic approach that will stimulate the engineering of better hearing devices and ubiquitous assistive technologies, as well as the construction of new auditory implants. By combining basic, clinical, translational and applied research with clinical service, engineering and applications, the Cluster of Excellence aims to achieve a major breakthrough in hearing research and rehabilitation technology, thus transforming audiology into an "exact" science. Research is organised in interdisciplinary, highly flexible task groups that focus on three major research areas: (1) diagnostic characterisation of the individual to optimally evaluate the hearing impairment, (2) optimising hearing devices by applying theory-driven functional principles, (3) developing new assistive technological solutions to precisely tailor hearing support to individual needs in a variety of listening situations. The Cluster of Excellence builds upon the complementary research expertise on hearing devices and implants at the internationally recognised and closely interconnected cluster sites in Oldenburg and Hannover. Both sites recently established a joint Centre for Hearing Research integrating the work of physicists, engineers, psychologists, biologists, medical researchers and clinicians. The expertise in the Cluster of Excellence covers the entire developmental chain from bench to bedside, representing a unique interdisciplinary and research-sector-transcending environment that is intended to evolve into the Centre of Excellence for Hearing Research, attracting the best scientists, most prestigious grants and having the greatest impact on commercial hearing products.