Prof. Michaela Müller-McNicoll and Prof. Martin Beck, spokespersons for SCALE, on the Clusters of Excellence decision day, new ideas and what lies ahead
UniReport: Congratulations, Professor Müller-McNicoll and Professor Beck. Are you still euphoric about SCALE’s success in the Excellence Strategy?
Michaela Müller-McNicoll: Yes, we’re in great spirits. We’re just on our way to the Hessian Ministry of Science, where Minister Timon Gremmels will welcome us along with the other cluster representatives.
Martin Beck: Euphoric might not be the right word – we mostly feel relieved that all the hard work has paid off. And for Frankfurt, the dual success of SCALE and CPI is incredibly important – we’ve come out of the competition stronger than we went in. That feels very good to us.
How and where did you follow the announcement? Was it a glamorous setting?
MMM: That would’ve been nice [laughs]. No, it wasn’t glamorous at all. I was with my colleague Inga Hänelt, SCALE’s co-spokesperson, and a few others from the team watching the livestream together.
MB: I managed to distract myself pretty well – I was away on retreat and didn’t actually watch it live.
MMM: It was really nerve-wracking. Inga and I even drove up to the Feldberg at one point – we just couldn’t sit still anymore.
SCALE was a first-time application. What were your expectations – did you feel like outsiders going in, or did being new actually give you an edge against the “old pros”?
MB: In the preliminary round, we were definitely underdogs, and we came into the process relatively late. But in the main round, we were already more confident – also because we knew our research program is strong, so let’s see the established clusters try and match that.
MMM: But yes, in the beginning we really were underdogs, and that actually gave us momentum to try something new – something that hadn’t yet existed on Riedberg Campus.
Goethe University Frankfurt submitted the application, but you had many partners, including the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics (MPIBP), the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (MPIBR), the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS), Saarland University, and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU). How do you view the collaboration with so many partners?
MB: I think it worked well overall. Most of the core institutions are based on Riedberg Campus, where people already know each other and work together. We then brought in additional expertise from Mainz and Saarland.
MMM: I agree. Many of the principal investigators already knew each other from earlier consortia. Also, some participants are part of SCALE more as individuals than as institutional representatives.
SCALE aims to uncover the principles of cellular self-organization and create a high-resolution spatial and temporal simulation of the cell. Would it be fair to say you’re trying to make the invisible visible?
MB: Yes, you could say that. Some cellular mechanisms are so complex that it’s hard to grasp them with the human mind alone. One way to better understand that complexity is through computer-based simulations, which help us make predictions that can then be tested experimentally.
MMM: SCALE is also about developing new technologies to fill gaps in our understanding. We already know quite a lot about how individual protein complexes work and how whole cells are organized. But there’s still a big knowledge gap in between. Using simulations, we want to visualize what’s happening in that in-between space – and check whether we’ve truly understood everything.
SCALE wants to advance understanding and potentially open up new approaches to treating disease – so basic research and application go hand in hand?
MB: Exactly. SCALE has five biological application areas, including neurodegenerative diseases and the question of how bacteria develop resistance to certain antibiotics.
Funding begins on January 1, 2026. Is SCALE financially secure until then?
MB: We need to start implementing our research program immediately, using the funds currently available to us. That means posting job openings – both for support staff and professorships. The hiring process takes time.
Research is one side of it – but there are also significant administrative and organizational responsibilities.
MB: That’s true, but we’ve been dealing with that all along.
MMM: But it is becoming more concrete now: We have to define the budget precisely and figure out which technical equipment still needs to be acquired. A lot lies ahead of us. One major advantage is that CPI already exists as an experienced research cluster in Frankfurt – we can learn a lot from them and regular, ongoing exchange will prove very valuable.
MB: We’ve already had several conversations with CPI spokesperson Stefanie Dimmeler, even during the preparation phase, to identify synergies and potential joint projects, as well as areas where we need to differentiate ourselves. All of that will become even more concrete now.
MMM: And of course, we’ve congratulated each other warmly. Stefanie Dimmeler was incredibly supportive – that meant a lot. Another fact worth noting is that both of Frankfurt’s Clusters of Excellence are led by women.
