Research and Teaching at the University of Bonn
The University of Bonn is one of eleven Universities of Excellence in Germany and the only university with six Clusters of Excellence. Our seven faculties cover a broad range of disciplines. These strong disciplines are supplemented by six cross-faculty, interdisciplinary “Transdisciplinary Research Areas” (TRAs) that create spaces for exploration and innovation where key scientific, technological and social challenges are addressed.
Transdisciplinary Research Profile
The research profile of our University of Excellence is based on our six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs), and is further strengthened by six Clusters of Excellence, countless collaborative projects and outstanding researchers.
Teaching Profile
We aim to create a passion for science in young people and help them develop their individual professional and personal skills as best possible. The overall orientation of study and teaching at the University is based on ten principles.
Researchers and Teachers
The University provides a range of services to help increase the time available for research and teaching. These range from providing advice on submitting applications and handling third-party funded projects, all the way to consulting on teaching methods. Learn about our Welcome Center and funding lines for international exchange, among other things.
Doctoral Students and Postdocs
We want to give talented early-career researchers the opportunity to perform independent research and help them achieve their goals both within and outside academia. The Argelander Program provides orientation, cross-disciplinary training and funding for early-career researchers.
Knowledge and Technology Transfer
enaCom Transfer Center sees itself as an intermediary, translator and catalyst between science and stakeholders outside the scientific community. Its work focuses on making research results obtained at the University of Bonn available for the benefit of society.
Quality Assurance
Academic integrity and high quality teaching are our top priorities. Learn about our quality assurance measures, Guidelines for Safeguarding Good Research Practice and your contact persons.
The EU regularly exports large quantities of poultry meat to West African countries. These exports have been criticized for harming importing countries in West Africa and exacerbating poverty there. The reason: Cheap imports depress the local price of chicken, making life difficult for local smallholders. Researchers at the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen have now used the example of Ghana to calculate the effects that would result if the country were to significantly increase its import tariffs for poultry meat or even stop imports completely. The result: Prices would indeed rise domestically, but most local households would not benefit. The study has been published in the journal Food Security.
The 2020 UEFA European Football Championship, which was played in 2021, had a very different impact on the infection dynamics of the coronavirus pandemic in different participating countries. The extent to which the rates of infection and death from Covid-19 increased depended primarily on the pandemic situation in the country at the start of the championship. This was concluded by physicists in an analysis of epidemiological data. The study involved the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, the Max Planck Institute for Physics in Munich, as well as the Universities of Bonn and Göttingen and the PUNCH4NFDI consortium in the German national research data infrastructure NFDI. The study was published in Nature Communications.
Physicists at the University of Bonn have experimentally proven that an important theorem of statistical physics applies to so-called "Bose-Einstein condensates." Their results now make it possible to measure certain properties of the quantum “superparticles” and deduce system characteristics that would otherwise be difficult to observe. The study has now been published in Physical Review Letters.
There are two fundamentally different cell types in the brain, neurons and glial cells. The latter, for example, insulate the "wiring" of nerve cells or guarantee optimal working conditions for them. A new study led by the University of Bonn has now discovered another function in rodents: The results suggest that a certain type of glial cell plays an important role in spatial learning. The German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) was involved in the work. The results have now been published in the journal Nature Communications.
6
Clusters of Excellence
200+
Degree Programs
545
Professors
Our Research Profile
The research profile of our University of Excellence is defined by six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs), each of which has a Clusters of Excellence at its core. The TRAs focus our research on key scientific, technological and social issues of the future. Outstanding researchers, strong disciplines and a cooperative research culture have always formed the basis of our research profile.
Transdisciplinary Research Areas
The six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn create spaces for innovation in research and teaching.
Excellence Strategy
“We invest in people. We foster networks. We create impact.” Our strategy for excellence in research and teaching.
Clusters of Excellence
The University of Bonn has six Clusters of Excellence, more than any other university in Germany.
Promotion of Early-Career Researchers
We offer many support services for doctoral students and postdocs to promote early independent research.
Research Networks
Innovative top-level research in many national and international partnerships and collaborative projects sets us apart.
Outstanding Researchers
The outstanding research performed by our researchers is shown by the many awards that have been received.