25 million euros for AI-supported cancer research in Bonn: The University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, and the Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence are establishing a joint research infrastructure with funding from the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The aim is to use AI to design and optimize potential cancer drugs and then test them in the laboratory. Minister-President Hendrik Wüst and Minister of Science Ina Brandes presented the funding commitment today at the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Bonn has again prevailed in competition for funding from the European Research Council (ERC), with researchers of the University of Excellence landing two prestigious ERC Starting Grants. Neuroscientist Professor Lukas Kunz, also associated with University Hospital Bonn (UKB), conducts research on how the human brain constructs the first-person perspective of our experiences. Dr. Riccardo Pennetta is leading a research project on large-scale quantum physics. The two researchers are to each receive approximately 1.5 million euros from the ERC for their projects over a five-years period.

There has been a rapid increase in cardiovascular and metabolic conditions in sub-Saharan Africa. What is the link between sustainable diets that are nutritious, environmentally friendly, economically affordable, and socioculturally acceptable, and cardiometabolic conditions? An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Ina Danquah, Hertz Chair for Innovation for Planetary Health in the Transdisciplinary Research Area “Sustainable Futures” and Director at Center for Development Research (ZEF) at University of Bonn, investigated this question among Ghanaian adults who live in various locations.

The core renovation of the former Electoral Palace has commenced, as project manager BLB NRW, the building and real estate management agency of North Rhine-Westphalia, has started preparatory work to set up an interim auditorium in the area of the underground parking garage. Cyclists and pedestrians will still have open routes to the city center and the Rhine at all times during the construction project.

A research community with big plans came together for the three-day GAIN26 conference in San Francisco, where postdocs and early-career researchers from across North America were after new contacts, funding options and job prospects in Germany. The University of Bonn used the annual meeting of the German Academic International Network (GAIN) from August 21 to 23, 2026, as an opportunity to discuss these very matters face to face with its audience.

Whether on a car, a garden fence, or a ship: a coat of paint protects against rust. But water takes its toll on any coating—from a rain shower to ocean waves. Until now, the damage was primarily attributed to mechanical wear on the surface or to interactions with acidic components in the droplets. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research have now identified a previously unknown factor in collaboration with the University of Bonn: the electrical charge of water droplets. They show that this charge damages surfaces over time—an effect that could open up new approaches for more durable coatings. Their findings were now published in the scientific journal “Nature”.