Bremen celebrates: University receives award for equality!

Bremen celebrates: University receives award for equality!

Today, March 18, 2025, the University of Bremen was awarded the title “Equal Opportunity University” in the Bremen town hall. This honor underlines the university's exemplary gender policy activities and at the same time opens doors for financial support to strengthen equality. As the University of Bremen reports, the award was presented at a Senate reception.

The University of Bremen has distinguished itself through its active participation in the federal and state women's professor program. This initiative aims to increase the proportion of women in top academic positions and strengthen gender equality structures at universities. Since its launch in 2008, the program has supported over 850 professorships, contributing significantly to combating the leaky pipeline phenomenon in which women are increasingly less represented in their academic career paths. The proportion of women in professorships in Germany is currently only 28%.

Innovative concepts for equality

The jury of the Joint Science Conference particularly praised the equality concept of the University of Bremen. The university impressed with its approaches to recruiting female professors and promoting gender-equitable career development through summer universities for female engineers and computer scientists as well as creative communication strategies. Dr. Mandy Boehnke, vice-rector of the University of Bremen, emphasized the central role of gender equality in the academic world.

Senator Kathrin Moosdorf was pleased with the success of Bremen's universities, all of which had applied for the title of “Equal Opportunity University”. In addition to the University of Bremen, the University of Bremen and the University of Bremerhaven also received this award, which underlines the importance of gender equality in science.

The 2030 Professor Program

The female professor program will continue until 2030 and provides for a total of three rounds of funding. Universities are required to submit an equality concept in order to participate in the program. The first selection round for PP 2030 saw active participation from 92 universities who presented creative solutions to improve equality. Applications for start-up funding for permanent W2 or W3 professorships can be submitted until September 30, 2025.

22 universities were particularly recognized for their outstanding equality concepts. To take part in the program, all state and state-recognized universities in Germany can submit applications. The process is two-stage: First, the equality concepts must be submitted by August 31, 2025, followed by a formal funding application.

The total financial volume is 150 million euros for the first three program phases and 320 million euros for the fourth phase of PP 2030. The project management company DLR-PT was commissioned to ensure successful implementation. If you have any questions about project funding, Dr. Heike Scheidemann and Dr. Astrid Schüßler are available as contact persons.

In summary, it shows that the University of Bremen not only impresses with innovative concepts for gender equality, but also plays a central role in the nationwide initiative to promote women in science. These developments are a step in the right direction to sustainably increase the proportion of women in leadership positions and promote an equal academic landscape. The University of Bremen has thus sent a strong signal for the future, which can also serve as a model for other universities.