The Research Training Group 1558 – funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and associated with Technische Universität Berlin and its partner institutions, Freie Universität Berlin, Universität Potsdam, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt and Max-Delbrück-Centrum – offers a platform for educating doctoral students in interdisciplinary research by applying and developing concepts for describing the collective dynamics of nonlinear dissipative systems chosen from three project areas.