Photovoltaic systems are increasingly being installed not only on roofs but also on open land. This does not always meet with citizens’ approval. What is known as agrivoltaics (Agri-PV), however, is viewed more favorably, as researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show. In this case, the solar cells are installed in spaces used for agriculture – such as on pastures or as a canopy over grapevines. According to a survey of almost 2,000 people, this form enjoys much higher acceptance than normal solar parks. The study has been published in the journal “Land Use Policy.”

They are very tiny, but they are a key source of information when it comes to the earth’s evolutionary history: pollen grains are usually no larger than 20 micrometres, or 0.02 millimetres. Using these tiny particles, a research team at Leibniz University Hannover (LUH) and the University of Bonn has managed to pinpoint the earliest emergence of flowering plants, so-called angiosperms, much more precisely. Eudicotyledonous flowering plants, the eudicots, appeared at least two million years earlier than previously known.

For a two day visit at the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bonn welcomed 14 medical students accompanied by the deputy director of the teaching office of the Shanghai East International Medical Centre and a research associate from Tongji University in Shanghai. During a varied program, the guests from China were given an insight into studies and research at the Faculty of Medicine Bonn. The aim of the visit was to discuss specialist topics and future exchange opportunities.

The North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts has welcomed 12 high-caliber researchers and artists into its ranks in 2025, including Professor Frank Bradke from the University of Bonn and the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE).

Dr. Katharina C. Cramer, Nicolas Rüffin, and Dr. Kristofer Rolf Söderström have successfully made the transition from researchers to entrepreneurs and founded the start-up TILLER ALPHA GmbH in early 2025. “It’s important to us to communicate this change of roles openly,” emphasizes Katharina. Their clients, like themselves, come from the scientific community: TILLER ALPHA provides data-driven and AI-supported analyses for research infrastructures. Katharina also explored this topic in her research at the Center for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies (CASSIS) at the University of Bonn. In this interview, she explains their business idea, the start-up journey, and the support they received from the Transfer Center enaCom.

The universities of Cologne, Bonn, Düsseldorf and Aachen agreed to establish a joint academic institution (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftliche Einrichtung, GWE) on 1 January 2025. The contractual partners will thereby be transforming the West German Genome Center (WGGC) from its current form as a collaborative research network into a new kind of institution. Newly founding the center as a GWE ensures that the partners can maintain already existing structures and further develop established technologies.

The University of Bonn's rowing teams once again proved their endurance and class at this year's EUREGA. At the traditional long-distance regatta on the Rhine - from Neuwied and from the Loreley to Bonn over a distance of 45 and 100 kilometers respectively - the boats from Bonn achieved excellent placings.

The marine bacterium Alcanivorax borkumensis feeds on oil, multiplying rapidly in the wake of oil spills, and thereby accelerating the elimination of the pollution, in many cases. It does this by producing an “organic dishwashing liquid” which it uses to attach itself to oil droplets. Researchers from the University of Bonn, RWTH Aachen University, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf and research center Forschungszentrum Jülich have now discovered the mechanism by which this “organic dishwashing liquid” is synthesized. Published in the prominent international journal Nature Chemical Biology, the research findings could allow the breeding of more efficient strains of oil-degrading bacteria.