With core components such as mathematical modeling, simulation, and optimization, scientific computing has developed into a key technology for understanding and mastering the challenges that arise in complex processes in science and engineering. Its methods have already become indispensable in physics, chemistry, and engineering disciplines, and they are currently entering research in the life sciences .

To promote scientific computing in new application areas such as economics, finance and the social sciences, the humanities and cultural sciences, but also medicine and public health, the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) has identified twelve so called Pioneering Projects. These projects cover important scientific areas in which the potential of modeling and simulation has yet to be fully exploited.

Management of the Pioneering Projects is the responsibility of the Executive Board of IWR:
Prof. Dr. Hans Georg Bock
Prof. Dr. Bernd Jähne
Prof. Dr. Rolf Rannacher

The film "Pioneering Projects in Scientific Computing" from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) offers a glimpse into the work of the IWR and one of its Pioneering Projects (2D & 3D analysis of inscriptions):