Following completion of intensive exterior restoration work, Poppelsdorf Palace has now been officially handed back to its owner, the University of Bonn, by the North Rhine-Westphalia state construction and real estate agency (Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb NRW, or BLB NRW). The handover ceremony was held in the palace courtyard on October 29. 

A space for encounters, dialogue and experimental urban design began to be created right in the heart of downtown Bonn in September 2025. In this “BACK:LAB – Labor für künstlerische Stadtforschung” (“lab for creative urban research”), students from the Department of Architecture at Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences in Alfter and the Department of Geography at the University of Bonn have joined forces with residents, shopkeepers and other interested members of the public to study the Marthashof. This courtyard, hidden behind a row of buildings between Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz, Kölnstraße, Langstraße and Sandkaule in the city center, has proven somewhat controversial.

Led by economist Dr. Jan Bergerhoff and computer scientist Adolfo Santamónica, the Heinzel AI project at the University of Bonn is developing an AI-powered “little helper” (“Heinzelmännchen” in German) for businesses. The smart AI assistance that it provides is designed to help firms familiarize a talking AI with their company-specific data, thus enabling it to make applications, invoices and forms much easier to process, for example. The Heinzel AI project has been awarded nearly €300,000 in “Start-up Transfer.NRW” funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the European Union.

How do the circuits of the human brain work – and what happens when they are disrupted? To investigate these questions, researchers at the Eye Clinic of the University Hospital Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn, together with colleagues from the University of Münster and Harvard Medical School, have developed an innovative platform that allows the function of neural networks to be studied in a targeted manner. The results have now been published in the journal ACS Nano.

Dr. France Rose, a researcher at the interface of biology and computer science, has been successful in the Emmy Noether Program of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Her new research group began work at the University of Bonn in October 2025. 

For two whole days, the University of Bonn was given over entirely to international dialogue. The International Days 2025 on October 20 and 21 saw students and researchers come together with partners from other countries to engage in in-depth dialogue that spanned cultural, academic and scientific boundaries. The diverse program had it all, from conversations with the Bonn University Ambassadors and the official opening of a new space for encounters to the conferral of the state awards and the DAAD Prize to outstanding early-career researchers.

As part of this year’s International Days, four highly talented early-career researchers from the University of Bonn who demonstrated superlative academic ability in their final theses were presented with the traditional state awards at a special ceremony. Meanwhile, an international early-career researcher was recognized for his outstanding academic performance and extraordinary social engagement with the Prize of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

From 29 October to 1 November, the city of Bonn will once again host the high-profile “International Security Forum Bonn” (ISFB), bringing together internationally renowned experts and practitioners from the fields of security, strategy, and foreign policy to discuss the future of transatlantic relations and key global challenges.This year’s main themes are the transformation of European security dynamics and space policy.