SMART had the pleasure to organize a very well received skills course on the topic of strategic time management in academia on Monday, February 23rd. Our doctoral researchers appreciated Dr. Matthias Mayer’s engaging and interactive approach which made acquiring critical notions for the success of their long-term academic projects feel effortless. The workshop debuted in […]
On Friday, December 12, 2025, the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg hosted Research Day 2025: “Shaping the Future of Research in Life Sciences and Medicine: Research Areas of the Faculty of Medicine”, organized by a multidisciplinary committee including our PI Anna Köttgen. The event brought together scientists from across the Freiburg area to present current projects, connect […]
SMART has organized a full-day training on mental health in research for our doctoral researchers on Monday, December 8th. Dr. Bergner’s approach, tailored specifically to our program, integrates scientific evidence with practical strategies to support researchers in navigating and sustaining well-being within today’s academic environment The event started enthusiastically at 9:00 and proceeded with an […]
In 2025, the SmallData Seminar Series explored how to extract reliable insight from datasets that are noisy, incomplete, or highly heterogeneous. Across invited talks, Associated Researcher presentations, and hands-on workshops, the series linked methodological advances to concrete biomedical and life-science questions within the small data landscape. One strong thread was AI that remains dependable when data […]
From November 19 to 21, our doctoral researchers met at the Schwarzwald Lodge Rothaus for the second SMART Retreat. The program followed the WCCD (Write/Code/Collab/Discuss) format established last year, combining focused project sessions with structured exchange and group activities. Day 1: Opening Sessions, Ice Breaker, and External Speaker Panel After the welcome plenary, participants joined […]
SMART had the pleasure to organize a very well received skills course on the topic of strategic time management in academia on Monday, February 23rd. Our doctoral researchers appreciated Dr. Matthias Mayer’s engaging and interactive approach which made acquiring critical notions for the success of their long-term academic projects feel effortless. The workshop debuted in […]
The Thirty-Ninth Annual Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) took place across two official locations: San Diego, USA (Dec 2–7, 2025) and Mexico City, Mexico (Nov 30–Dec 5, 2025). In parallel, EurIPS, a Europe-based AI conference officially endorsed by NeurIPS, was held in Copenhagen, Denmark (Dec 2–7, 2025). At these events, members of our CRC presented their latest SmallData research. “TabArena: A […]
On Friday, December 12, 2025, the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg hosted Research Day 2025: “Shaping the Future of Research in Life Sciences and Medicine: Research Areas of the Faculty of Medicine”, organized by a multidisciplinary committee including our PI Anna Köttgen. The event brought together scientists from across the Freiburg area to present current projects, connect […]
SMART has organized a full-day training on mental health in research for our doctoral researchers on Monday, December 8th. Dr. Bergner’s approach, tailored specifically to our program, integrates scientific evidence with practical strategies to support researchers in navigating and sustaining well-being within today’s academic environment The event started enthusiastically at 9:00 and proceeded with an […]
The recent progress in artificial intelligence has been facilitated by big data volumes and data-driven modeling approaches. However, there is a much larger number of applications where data analysis has to be performed with a relatively small number of observations. This can be addressed with knowledge-driven approaches, such as differential equations that incorporate biomedical domain knowledge, or by adapting data-driven approaches, e.g., neural networks, or ideally by combining the two types of approaches. When developing such methods for small data settings, three key areas need to be addressed: similarity, transfer, and uncertainty. This enables combination of similar observations, e.g., from different hospitals, and more generally transfer of information, e.g., between genome screening and mechanistic models, while quantifying and reducing uncertainty. For creating comprehensive solutions that fuse such exciting emerging ideas, our Collaborative Research Center (CRC) 1597 'Small Data' (SmallData), which started on October 1st, 2023, integrates contributions from computer science, mathematics, and statistics/systems modeling, with input from biomedicine. Our doctoral program SMART is key for establishing a shared language across those disciplines. We are located in Freiburg, Germany, with external partners in Bochum and Greifswald. For more details see our scientific framework and interdisciplinary approach, or have a look at the individual research projects.
Institute of Medical Biometry and Statistics,
Faculty of Medicine and Medical Center –
University of Freiburg
