The State of Lower Saxony and the VolkswagenFoundation have granted researchers of the University Medical Center Göttingen, the Leibniz University Hannover and the Clusters of Excellence Multiscale Bioimaging and Hearing4all funding by the zukunft.niedersachsen program. Their project on the development of optical cochlear implants for the restoration of hearing in humans received funding of around 0.7 million euros as part of the „Durchbrüche“ line of funding.