The University of Jena submitted its application for funding as a University of Excellence to the German Council of Science and Humanities in November 2025. In summer 2026, the University will host the on-site visit of an international panel of experts. The Committee of Experts will announce its decision on the new Universities of Excellence on 2 October 2026.
With the approval of two Clusters of Excellence on 22 May 2025 – the continuation of "Balance of the Microverse" and the new cluster "Imaginamics. Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining" – the University of Jena has met the requirements for applying in the University of Excellence funding line. Both clusters exemplify the University's research profile: the connection between the natural, life and human sciences, regional engagement, and international visibility.
placeholder image — The university president, Prof. Dr. Andreas Marx, is holding a copy of the application for excellence.
Image: Multimediazentrum der Uni JenaUnder the title "Light. Life. Liberty. – Connecting People and Ideas", the University of Jena has developed a comprehensive strategy for the future, built on three foundations: scientific excellence, social responsibility, and a lived culture of dialogue. The application understands research as a collaborative endeavour – carried by people who connect ideas with one another.
Over recent decades, Jena has developed into a highly networked centre of science and innovation. The University forms the heart of a vibrant ecosystem that brings together Jena University Hospital, non-university research institutions, the Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences, businesses, and the wider urban community. With its application as a University of Excellence, the University is taking the next step to strengthen its role as a catalyst for innovation, education, and societal transformation – regionally rooted, globally connected, and oriented towards the future.
"Particularly in times of growing scepticism towards science, our aim is to make the value of research and education visible," says University President Prof. Dr Andreas Marx. "Science needs trust – and this trust grows through openness, responsibility, and the courage to think anew, together."
Two young female researchers at work in the laboratory
Image: Anna Schroll (Universit?t Jena)Being recognised as a University of Excellence would open substantial opportunities for the University of Jena. Funded universities receive between 10 and 15 million euros annually, allowing them to sharpen their academic profile, create space for outstanding research, and strengthen career perspectives for researchers in early and mid-career stages. The University's attractiveness as an employer and the working environment for all members of the University would also benefit from these additional resources.
For the University of Jena, the application also means deepening collaboration across faculties and with regional partners from science, business, and society. The experience gained from the Cluster of Excellence "Balance of the Microverse" shows how additional funding can broaden teaching opportunities for students and increase international visibility.
Two researchers from the "Balance of the Microverse" Cluster of Excellence at work in the lab
Image: Anna SchrollIn 2019, the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” began its work at Friedrich Schiller University. On May 22, 2025, the Cluster was selected for further funding until 2033.
The Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse” focuses on understanding microbial communities - their dynamics, their stability and their controllability. The researchers are investigating how microorganisms interact with each other in complex networks, which factors influence their balance and how such systems can be specifically stabilized. Microbial networks have a decisive influence on the health of humans, animals and the environment - their resilience to external influences is therefore of central importance.
In the new funding period, the researchers will further expand their interdisciplinary approaches. The focus will be on the resilience of microbial ecosystems and the development of innovative strategies for the sustainable control of microbial processes. Potential applications are opening up in environmental research, medicine and biotechnology. The emerging Microverse Center Jena on the Beutenberg will also provide the cluster with a new home - as a focal point for research, exchange and scientific innovation.
Researchers from the Cluster of Excellence initiative "Imaginamics" sit and stand around a table and work together on a flipchart.
Image: Anna SchrollThe new Cluster of Excellence "Imaginamics. Practices and Dynamics of Social Imagining" has been funded since 1 January 2026 and explores what holds societies together at their core: shared imaginings and narratives, worldviews and visions of the future – the social staple food of every society.
“How we understand society, how we imagine the future and look to the past is currently undergoing drastic changes,” says Johannes Grave, Professor of Modern Art History and spokesperson for the new Cluster of Excellence. As the current crisis has shown, social imagining can not only bring people together and promote solidarity, but also create conflicts and divisions.
The cluster's research will not only focus on individual imaginative content, but will also concentrate on the process of imagining. In this way, the researchers aim to gain a comprehensive understanding of social imagination that combines approaches from the cultural sciences, humanities and social sciences with theoretical groundwork and well-founded empirical studies, thereby opening up cross-epochal and cross-cultural perspectives.
“Imaginamics” is supported by a network of strong regional cooperation partners, some of whom bring unique expertise to the topic. In addition to Friedrich Schiller University, the Bauhaus University Weimar, the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, the Ettersberg Foundation, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials, the Max Weber College Erfurt, the Institute for Democracy and Civil Society (IDZ) and academics from the universities of Halle and Erfurt are also involved. Through publicly visible projects and citizen science, the cluster will also seek dialog with society and make it the subject of its research.
Universities with Clusters of Excellence may apply for a so-called University Allowance (1.75 million euros annually) to strengthen their organisation and strategic development. At the University of Jena, these funds support the LIGHT, LIFE, LIBERTY profile lines, positions for researchers in early and mid-career stages, and projects for students such as the Honours Programme. The Jena Excellence Fellowship also enables the University to invite international guests to Jena.
Three researchers in conversation on a staircase
Image: Anna Schroll (Universit?t Jena)Since 2019, ten universities and one university consortium have been funded as Universities of Excellence. Following the positive evaluation in March 2026, these institutions will continue to be funded in the new funding period from 2027. In the current round of the competition, up to five new Universities of Excellence may be added.
The call for proposals was published on 28 March 2024. Building on the decisions on the Clusters of Excellence in May 2025, eligible universities submitted their applications by 12 November 2025. In spring and summer 2026, international panels of experts will visit the universities on site, before the Excellence Commission decides on the admission of the new Universities of Excellence on 2 October 2026.
The submitted application is structured in three parts: overall strategy, status quo and previous achievements, and planning and potential. It comprises around 60 pages and includes statements on all performance dimensions (research, teaching, transfer, research infrastructures) and cross-cutting dimensions (including support for early-career researchers, equal opportunities, internationalisation, digitalisation, cooperation, and personnel planning, recruitment, and development) of the University. It is complemented by a data appendix of around 60 pages on the University's current status.
