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Since 2001, the Swiss National Science Foundation has a federal mandate to promote National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCRs). NCCRs are long-term research projects of outstanding quality which have special emphasis on both interdisciplinary and innovative approaches within the disciplines involved.

The objective of the NCCR program is the sustained strengthening of Swiss research in fields that are highly relevant for the development of the society and economy. NCCRs are supposed to achieve internationally recognised research, to support talented doctoral and postdoc students and to engage in fostering the transfer of knowledge and technology. The management office of each NCCR is situated at a university or another research institution.

Exploring the Past, Present and Future of Language

What is language? How did our species develop the ca­pa­city for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for con­sist­ently passing down new variations to the next generation? How will our capacity for language change in the face of digital com­munication and neuroengineering?

The NCCR Evolving Language explores the evolutionary origins and future development of linguistic communication with an unprecedented transdisciplinary research programme. We conceptualise language as a system of components with distinct evolutionary trajectories and adopt a large-scale comparative framework to study these trajectories in nature and function along different thematic axes. The NCCR is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from the humanities, from language and computer science, the social sciences, and the natural sciences at an unprecedented level.

NCCR AntiResist – New Approaches to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria

NCCR LIVES – Vulnerability and Resilience Across the Life Course

NCCR MARVEL – Computational Design and Discovery of Novel Materials

NCCR Microbiomes – Management of Microbes for Health, Environment and Technology

NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering – Molecular factories and cellular systems

NCCR PlanetS – Origin, Evolution, and Characterisation of Planets

NCCR SwissMAP – The Mathematics of Physics

NCCR Kidney.CH – Kidney – Control of Homeostasis
NCCR Mediality – Media Change and Media Knowledge. Historical Perspectives
NCCR Demokratie – Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century
NCCR FINRISK – Financial Valuation and Risk Management
NCCR Neuro – Neural Plasticity and Repair
NCCR Strukturbiologie – Molecular Life Sciences: Three Dimensional Structure, Folding and Interactions