At its meeting from 22 to 24 April 2026, the German Science and Humanities Council voted in favour of funding two important research infrastructure projects in Thuringia: the ?Imaginamics Center? at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and ?SysBrain? at Jena University Hospital (JUH). The funding, amounting to 94 million euros, will be shared equally between the federal and state governments; construction will begin in 2027.

Within the Cluster of Excellence ?Imaginamics?, for which a new centre is to be built, sresearchers are conducting interdisciplinary research into topics in the fields of cultural, humanities, social and media studies, and are investigating social phenomena such as social imagining. ?SysBrain? is dedicated to research into mental health and will also be housed in a new research building, the ?Center for Systemic Regulation of Brain Circuits and Social Behavior?. Both buildings are scheduled to be ready for occupation in 2031.

?These two research building projects will provide much-needed space for cutting-edge research at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and the University Hospital. The decision to award funding is a testament to the excellent academic standing of both institutions and of Jena as a centre of science as a whole?, said a delighted Science Minister Christian Tischner. ?A fantastic double success for Thuringia.?

Our research into social imagining brings together many disciplines and aims to efoster close engagement with the public. The ?Imaginamics Center? will provide the ideal conditions for this.

Prof. Dr Johannes Grave, spokesperson of the Cluster of Excellence ?Imaginamics? at the University of Jena

?SysBrain? creates a crucial foundation that will enable us to further expand our mental health research in Jena and extend it to include the interplay between physical and social factors.

Prof. Dr Martin Walter, spokesperson for ?SysBrain? and also Head of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the JUH

The German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) is the central advisory body on science policy of the federal and state governments. Its funding recommendation is a prerequisite for the federal government to cover half the costs for the new ?Imaginamics Center?—amounting to just over 24 million euros—and half the costs for the ?SysBrain?—amounting to around 70 million euros; the Free State of Thuringia will cover the remaining half.

Background

Funding for research facilities is provided on the basis of Article 91b of the German Basic Law. The funding decision is based on the recommendations of the German Science and Humanities Council. A total of 401 million euros is available annually for the funding of research facilities. The funds are provided in equal parts by the federal government and the respective state in which the facility is located. Research facilities are characterized by research programmes of supra-regional significance.

?Imaginamics Center? at the University of Jena

At the ?Imaginamics Center? research facility, scientists will investigate how socially shared imaginations hold societies together, divide them and transform them. The overall aim is to develop a comprehensive understanding of social imagining. The former and currently vacant University Main Building at Fürstengraben 23 in Jena, most recently home to the University of Jena's Department of Forensic Medicine, is to be converted into a research building for the ?Imaginamics Center?. The conversion will create a total of around 1,500 m? of new research space for the University of Jena by 2031.

?SysBrain? at Jena University Hospital

At the new research facility ?Center for Systemic Regulation of Brain Circuits and Social Behavior? (SysBrain), scientists will investigate the interactions between brain networks and the organism as a whole in response to environmental stimuli, as well as their impact on the maintenance of mental health and on the development and progression of neuropsychiatric disorders. The new research building, covering around 2,700 m? of research space, is to be built on the Mental Health Campus in the Landgrafen area by 2031, providing facilities and state-of-the-art research technologies to bring together existing and new research groups across disciplines.