Research Profile: Top-Level Research

The University of Bonn has stood for top-level research for over 200 years. The founding professors already saw Bonn as a research university aimed at answering scientific, social and technological questions. Researchers, teachers and early-career researchers all benefit from this today, taking advantage of established German and global networks and strong scientific and social partnerships—with measurable effect.

Transdisciplinary Research

The six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn create spaces for innovation in research and teaching.

More about our TRAs

Excellence in Research and Teaching

“We invest in people. We foster networks. We create impact.” We follow this strategy to create the ideal environment for creative scientific work by outstanding researchers that extends beyond our six Clusters of Excellence and to promote talented researchers at all career levels.

Excellence Strategy

The Best Minds

The outstanding research performed by our researchers is shown by the many awards that have been received.

Excellent Researchers

Cooperative Research Culture

Innovative top-level research in many national and international partnerships and collaborative projects sets us apart.

Collaborative Projects

Diverse Appointments

The diversity of our externally funded professorships is a sign of our close cooperation with economy and society.

Externally Funded Professorships

What sets our research profile apart?

01.

Excellence

The University of Bonn is one of eleven German Universities of Excellence and the only university with six Clusters of Excellence. Recent decades have seen us produce more Nobel Prize and Fields Medal winners than any other German university.

02.

Networked

Embedded in the UN city of Bonn and a region of cutting-edge research, the University of Bonn is one of the leading research-oriented universities in Germany.

03.

Transdisciplinary

Our seven faculties cover a broad range of disciplines. This strong range of disciplines is supplemented by six cross-faculty, interdisciplinary “Transdisciplinary Research Areas” (TRAs) that create areas for exploration and innovation to facilitate academic exchange.

04.

Comprehensive Support

Our goal is to create the ideal conditions for internationally networked research to attract and develop the best researchers. Our Argelander Program for Early-Career Researchers offers comprehensive support to promote early independent research.

Transdisciplinary Research Areas

Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) focus our research on key scientific, technological and social issues of the future and create areas for exploration and innovation.

Mathematics, Modelling and Simulation of Complex Systems

How do complex systems actually work? Interaction of mathematical modelling, classical observational methods, data simulation and creative spirit.

TRA Modelling

Building Blocks of Matter and Fundamental Interactions

How do the building blocks of matter interact? How do complex structures emerge at the different length scales of nature? Find out more about our research.

TRA Matter

Life and Health

Understanding the complexity of life - developing new strategies for health.
Read more about TRA Life and Health.

TRA Life and Health

Individuals, Institutions and Societies

Complex relationships between the individual, institutions and societies – developing new views of micro- and macrophenomena.

TRA Individuals & Societies

Past Worlds and Modern Questions. Cultures Across Time and Space

We foster and network research on the preconditions and conditions of the emergence of modern societies as well as on negotiation processes of heritage.

TRA Present Pasts

Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Futures

The TRA Sustainable Futures researches institutional, science- and technology-based innovations in the field of sustainability.

TRA Sustainable Futures

Latest Research and Teaching News

Joining forces against future pandemics

Three days of scientific exchange, workshops, and new impulses: Until July 2, 2025, members of the Bonn-Cumming Host-Directed Pandemic Therapeutics Program are gathered at University Hospital Bonn (UKB) for a symposium to reflect on the current state of their research and discuss further steps. The joint program of the Cumming Global Centre for Pandemic Therapeutics at the University of Melbourne and of the University of Bonn aims to combat future pandemics with novel therapeutics.

Silk Cocoons, Nasal Cavities, Spider Webs… the Future of Filter Technologies

The air is full of particles of all kinds. Most are harmless to human beings—but some are hazardous to our health. To remove the latter from the air we breathe, innovative filtration systems are required. Dr. Leandra Hamann and Professor Alexander Blanke of the Bonn Institute of Organismic Biology look to nature for inspiration in their work to develop bio-inspired filters at the University of Bonn. In an interview, Leandra Hamann talked about the technological potential and the challenges researchers in this area have identified.

Astronomers uncover huge, hot filament of missing normal matter

An international team of astronomers led by Leiden University and with involvement from the University of Bonn has investigated a large filament made of hot gas that connects four galaxy clusters and contains what is known as warm–hot intergalactic medium (WHIM). The strand of hot gas stretches for 23 million light-years, is over 10 million degrees Celsius and could be some of the “missing” ordinary matter that has been predicted by the cosmological standard model but not yet shown to actually exist. The team’s findings have now been published in the journal “Astronomy & Astrophysics.”

How obesity also affects the next generation

Children born to obese mothers are at higher risk of developing metabolic disorders, even if they follow a healthy diet themselves. A new study from the University of Bonn offers an explanation for this phenomenon. In obese mice, certain cells in the embryo’s liver are reprogrammed during pregnancy. This leads to long-term changes in the offspring’s metabolism. The researchers believe that these findings could also be relevant for humans. The study has now been published in the journal Nature.

Bharat Desai Receives Humboldt Research Award

Bharat Desai, Professor of International Law at Jawaharlal Nehru University in India, has been honored with a Humboldt Research Award. He was nominated for the €60,000 prize by Professor Stefan Talmon, an international law expert at the University of Bonn, and will now spend a year working in Bonn alongside his host.

TIDE Research Training Group to Receive Additional Funding

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved another 4.5 years of funding for the Research Training Group “Template-Designed Organic Electronics” (GRK 2591 – TIDE), bringing the funding total up to 7.3 million euros. The second phase of funding runs from October 2025 until April 2030. The Research Training Group on organic electronics has received funding from the Universities of Cologne and Bonn since 2021. The group provides comprehensive training to enable doctoral students to meet market demand for highly qualified, multi-disciplinary specialists in the field of organic electronics. Its speakers are Professor Klaus Meerholz in Cologne and Professor Arne Lützen in Bonn.

The Fascinating World of Beetles

Over 400,000 beetle species have been described to date, making them the largest order of any liv-ing thing. Each individual one triggers spontaneous emotions in us: some people will let out a loud, shrill scream if they see a black beetle, while most will find ladybirds especially charming. When you have someone taking as close a look as photographer Carolin Bleese has done and a researcher as besotted with beetles as is Professor Dr. Nicholas Gompel from the Institute of Organismic Biology at the University of Bonn, then you get some completely new angles on the humble beetle. Running until August 31, 2025, the new special exhibition in P26 entitled “Fascinating Beetles” will display the images that have resulted from the collaboration between the two.

Decoding Complex Structures Through Mathematics

The German Research Foundation approved a new Collaborative Research Center (CRCs) at the University of Bonn. 19 principal investigators and their working groups will study the mathematical structures underlying complex phenomena in areas of criticality. The spokesperson of the CRC is Leibniz Prize winner Professor Angkana Rüland of the Hausdorff Center for Mathematics—Cluster of Excellence. The Collaborative Research Center will receive nearly four years of DFG funding of approximately seven million euros.

We think without borders

With our magazine, we give you an insight into the research and teaching being done at our University. We focus on our transdisciplinary research and the work that we are undertaking in our six Clusters of Excellence. By virtue of their reputation and sheer number, they are without parallel in the entire German university sector.

Find out more about us in the reports on the University, on our research and on some of our favorite places in Bonn—an extremely likeable city that is home to numerous international organizations.

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Contact

Research and Innovation Services

+49 228 / 73-60915
GZDez7@verwaltung.uni-bonn.de

The research division manages the entire research process - from initial information on funding, handling third-party funded projects and the exploitation of results.

Also see

Transdisciplinary Research Areas

The six Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn create spaces for innovation in research and teaching.

More on TRAs

Clusters of Excellence

The University of Bonn has six Clusters of Excellence, more than any other university in Germany.

Our Clusters

NeurotechEU

NeurotechEU is an alliance that have set themself the mission of building an innovative, trans-European network of excellence for brain research and technologies.

Learn more