Science you can touch: Marburg’s festival combines research and fun!

Science you can touch: Marburg’s festival combines research and fun!

On September 6, 2025, Marburg celebrated an impressive science festival on the market square that created a connection between research and city life. The event organized by the Philipps University of Marburg, the city of Marburg and the Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology was organized, offered citizens a colorful program with hands-on experiments, inspiring science talks and an exciting pub quiz.

The importance of research for society was emphasized by Gert Bange, Vice President for Research at Philipps University. He emphasized that applied science, as presented in the event's clusters of excellence, was crucial for future challenges.

Interactive experiments and exciting lectures

The celebrations included a variety of interactive offerings. From 12:15 p.m., visitors were able to find out at information stands what the scientists from the Clusters of Excellence “The Adaptive Mind” (TAM) and “Microbes for Climate” (M4C) are researching. The short lectures covered topics such as the conversion of plastic from the air, bacteria and methods for improving memory in Parkinson's disease. The offers for children were particularly well received, where they could, among other things, extract DNA from strawberries and solve various puzzles.

The evening program provided additional fun. The FCMH Science PubQuiz, which was held for the first time in Marburg, took place in the Café am Markt. Visitors could look forward to quizzes on microbes, brain research and space travel, combined with entertaining mini-games.

Clusters of Excellence “Microbes for Climate” and “The Adaptive Mind”

The event also provided the festive setting for the announcement that the University of Marburg had received approval for two clusters of excellence as part of the Excellence Strategy 2025. The Cluster of Excellence “Microbes for Climate” (M4C) will be funded for seven years from January 1, 2026. Together with the Max Planck Institute, M4C aims to research the role of microbes in the carbon cycle and use their ability to convert greenhouse gases. Microbes are crucial in converting billions of tons of CO2 and CH4, helping to create a balanced carbon balance to counteract global warming.

In addition, the cluster is also supported by various institutions such as the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and the Center for Earth Microcosm (MEC). The Justus Liebig University of Gießen and the University of Münster are also committed partners in this pioneering project.

The second cluster of excellence, “The Adaptive Mind”, focuses on interdisciplinary research on human adaptability and is carried out in collaboration with the University of Giessen and the Technical University of Darmstadt. Topics include psychology, artificial intelligence and robotics - areas that are becoming increasingly important in our ever-changing world.

The Excellence Strategy itself is an initiative to promote top research in Germany, supported by a federal-state agreement that secures a solid financial basis for the coming years. From 2026, the total annual budget of the Excellence Strategy will be 687 million euros and thus offers far-reaching prospects for academic research in the country.

Overall, the science festival in Marburg was a successful event that not only got citizens excited about science, but also highlighted the important role of research. The organizers hope that such events will continue to build a bridge between science and society.