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

跨学科卓越集群的愿景是为不同程度的听力障碍者（占总人口的18%以上，约占65岁以上人口的50%）实现更好的听力。因此，卓越集群解决了在我们日益老龄化的通信驱动的社会中对功能个性化听力设备的实质性需求，这些设备支持日常生活中的语音通信。主要研究者（PI）努力通过开发新的诊断工具和基于病理生理学的个性化治疗方法来实现这一目标，这将刺激更好的听力设备和无处不在的辅助技术的工程，以及新的听觉植入物的构建。通过将基础、临床、转化和应用研究与临床服务、工程和应用相结合，卓越集群旨在实现听力研究和康复技术的重大突破，从而将听力学转变为一门“精确”的科学。研究组织在跨学科，高度灵活的任务组，重点放在三个主要研究领域：（1）个人的诊断特征，以最佳地评估听力障碍，（2）通过应用理论驱动的功能原理优化听力设备，（3）开发新的辅助技术解决方案，以精确地定制听力支持，以满足各种听力情况下的个人需求。卓越集群建立在国际公认的、密切相关的奥尔登堡和汉诺威集群站点的听力设备和植入物的互补研究专业知识基础上。这两个网站最近建立了一个联合中心听力研究整合的物理学家，工程师，心理学家，生物学家，医学研究人员和临床医生的工作。卓越集群的专业知识涵盖了从实验室到床边的整个发展链，代表了一个独特的跨学科和研究部门的超越环境，旨在发展成为卓越的听力研究中心，吸引最优秀的科学家，最负盛名的赠款，并对商业听力产品产生最大的影响。

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.