UniWerk: Freiburg on the way to becoming a university of excellence – a milestone!

UniWerk: Freiburg on the way to becoming a university of excellence – a milestone!

The University of Freiburg has achieved significant success with the UniWerk project. On August 13, 2025, it was announced that the concept had emerged as the winner among the numerous submissions. Professor Dr. Jürgen Kleine-Vehn and Dr. Elke Barbez submitted the project to the Faculty of Biology and the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS - Center for Integrative Biological Signaling Studies. UniWerk aims to create a university-wide mobile participation and innovation format that benefits small organizational units such as working groups and departments as well as larger structures such as faculties and research institutions. The project is intended to have a direct impact on site and help employees adapt their work areas to new challenges, as the University of Freiburg reports in its article on the subject uni-freiburg.de.

If the application for excellence status, which will be decided in October 2026, is successful, the University of Freiburg could hold the title of University of Excellence from 2027. In this case, funding of 300,000 euros over three years is planned for the UniWerk project. Details about the concept will be communicated to the members of the university after the excellence application has been submitted.

Research funding and excellence status

In addition to this success, the University of Freiburg receives around 14 million euros annually for two research projects as part of the Federal and State Excellence Initiative. This funding relates to the two selected clusters of excellence: the CIBSS and “Future Forests”, which deals with forest development in the context of global change. The total funding period is initially seven years. Rector Kerstin Krieglstein expressed her delight at this support and the opportunity to apply for excellence status, as the SWR states in a current report swr.de.

The University of Freiburg was already successful in the first round of the Excellence Initiative in 2007, but lost its status in 2012. Four universities in Baden-Württemberg currently have excellence status: Tübingen, Heidelberg, Konstanz and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Interestingly, the University of Konstanz lost its excellence status due to a single approved research cluster. The excellence status is intended to help increase the visibility and reputation of the university and to have positive effects on studying and teaching.

Overview of universities of excellence in Germany

A look at the diversity of the universities of excellence in Germany reveals their different focuses. For example, the University of Bonn has the highest number of clusters of excellence, followed by the Technical University of Dresden, which conducts research in a wide range of disciplines, including natural sciences and engineering. The University of Hamburg is committed to being cosmopolitan and is also actively addressing climate change issues. In comparison, the University of Heidelberg, founded in 1386, is the oldest university in Germany and leads in medicine and natural sciences.

These different approaches and programs not only help science, but also show the striving of German universities for outstanding achievements and international visibility in the global research landscape. Freiburg will undoubtedly take a significant step in this direction in the coming years if the Excellence Proposal is successful, which could take the university into a new league of academic excellence. Deutschland.de offers a comprehensive overview of current developments in this area.