Daniel Grün and Lukas Heinrich Receive BMFTR Funding for Physics Foundation Models

MCML PIs Daniel Grün and Lukas Heinrich are part of the newly funded Germany-wide project “SciFM,” supported by the BMFTR, which aims to develop foundation models for astro- and particle physics.

Modern particle colliders, such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and telescopes like the Square Kilometer Array generate exabytes of data, creating an ideal testbed for AI. SciFM seeks to create a new generation of advanced AI tools—so-called foundation models—that act as “AI generalists,” trained on diverse datasets to solve multiple tasks, outperforming models trained on a single experiment.

The project unites leading researchers in AI for fundamental physics across four locations: Munich, Heidelberg, Hamburg, and Aachen, and has received funding of over 3 million euros. SciFM is currently hiring postdoctoral researchers and PhD students.