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Huge package for research: 75 million euros for the UA Ruhr!
The University of Duisburg-Essen is strengthening its research and international collaboration at the UA Ruhr with new cooperation agreements.
Huge package for research: 75 million euros for the UA Ruhr!
The University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), consisting of the Technical University of Dortmund, the Ruhr University of Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE), signed a new framework cooperation agreement on July 17, 2025. This step documents the close cooperation and progress made in recent years. With its founding in 2007, the UA Ruhr has sustainably strengthened the science location and gained significant influence, as [uni-due.de] reports.
The new contract is a response to the challenges and opportunities of the current scientific landscape. Significant progress has been made compared to the previous contract in 2017. These include the establishment of the Research Alliance Ruhr, which has been bundling top-level research in four research centers and a college since 2021, as well as the creation of 50 additional professorships. These measures are in line with the goal of improving career support for around 10,000 young researchers under the umbrella of the Research Academy.
New cooperation agreement and future committees
A central element of the new cooperation agreement is the formation of new committees. This includes an Executive Board that will replace the previous steering committees. The university rectors emphasize that the developments form the basis for a joint proposal for excellence from the Ruhr University Bochum and the TU Dortmund. Prof. Dr. Barbara Albert was elected spokesperson for the new Executive Board. At the same time, an innovation laboratory in the Ruhr area, the Ruhr Innovation Lab, is being developed.
Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst and Science Minister Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen also presented an allocation letter from the state for 75 million euros. This enables the establishment of four research centers and a college, which is part of a new future network. The universities focus on the research areas of health, sustainability, digitalization and energy, as [land.nrw] highlights.
The planned research centers and the Ruhr Conference
Each of the new research centers will work on specific topics. The following research centers will be established:
- Chemical Sciences and Sustainability
- Trustworthy Data Science and Security
- Future Energy Materials and Systems
- One Health – from Molecules to Systems
The College of Social Sciences and Humanities will establish a fellowship system for international visiting scholars. These steps are related to the Ruhr Conference, an initiative of the state government to strengthen the Ruhr metropolis. The Ruhr Conference started in 2018 with five fields of action and has been implementing a total of 73 projects since 2020.
Clusters of Excellence and future funding
In addition, the universities have improved their status within the framework of the Excellence Strategy. From 2026, the Ruhr University of Bochum, the TU Dortmund and the University of Duisburg-Essen will receive a total of three clusters of excellence funded by the German Research Foundation. These are:
- RESOLV: Lösungsmittelchemie, Sprecherin: Prof. Dr. Martina Havenith
- CASA: Cybersicherheit, Sprecher: Prof. Dr. Eike Kiltz
- Color Meets Flavor: Teilchenphysik, Standortsprecher: Prof. Dr. Johannes Albrecht
These clusters are part of a new model for excellent research and benefit from annual funding over seven years. This means that the UA Ruhr continues to position itself as a center of top research in Germany and will have an increasing number of excellently funded projects by 2026, as [uni-due.de] summarizes.