Excellence Strategy

21 October 2025|Excellence Strategy

The Sky in All Its Colors

Photo: ESO/B. Tafreshi

A few days ago, the European Southern Observatory launched operation of a new type of instrument, the 4-meter Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope (4MOST), which will carry out unique sky surveys over the next five years. The University of Hamburg is involved in this milestone of the international...

6 August 2025|Excellence Strategy

Timing for Parenthood, the Great Unknown

Photo: University of Hamburg / Dingler

At what point do couples decide to have children? How is this decided? And how does this impact society? Economist Dr. Christian Zimpelmann wants to investigate these questions using panel surveys and qualitative interviews. The project is supported by the University of Excellence Hamburg’s Ideas...

15 July 2025|Excellence Strategy

Holy Warriors, Monasteries, and Demons

Photo: Private

How do video games and TV series portray the Christian religion? Three students at the University of Hamburg are researching exactly that, and traveling to the world’s leading computer game trade fair in Cologne to investigate. This is one of 9 student research groups funding by Universität...

30 June 2025|Excellence Strategy

Former Command Post Becomes Public Garden

Photo: CC0

The conversion of the former command post and bunker on Heiligengeistfeld has created a sensation. The New York Times, for instance, named Hamburg one of 52 places to go in 2025 when the green bunker kicked off. University of Hamburg students are now creating visitor information videos. Historian...

19 June 2025|Excellence Strategy

Excellence Website Redesign

Illustration of the University of Hamburg Main Building

Photo: University of Hamburg / Vogiatzis

In preparation for the University of Excellence evaluation by the German Council of Science and Humanities, our University’s excellence website had a makeover. Its modern look and feel accentuates the presentation of University achievements within the Excellence Strategy and its future goals.

23 May 2025|Excellence Strategy

“Top-Level Research Has a Home, and It’s Called Hamburg”

Photos from the cluster announcement in the University of Hamburg Audimax

Photo: University of Hamburg / Höhne

On 22 May 2025, the German Research Foundation (DFG) endorsed the tremendous work carried out in the University of Hamburg’s clusters of excellence, announcing that all four projects would continue to receive funding during the next funding period. The research alliances cover a range of topics...

22 May 2025|Excellence Strategy

“A Great Success: The University of Hamburg Awarded 4 Clusters of Excellence”

Man sieht das Hauptgebäude der Uni Hamburg.

Photo: UHH/Denstorf

The University of Hamburg was extremely successful in the framework of the Excellence Strategy, securing funding for the 4 existing clusters of excellence in the next funding round from January 2026. The University has thus consolidated its top position among the leading group of German research...

3 April 2025|Excellence Strategy

Excellence Strategy “A Wonderful Opportunity to Advance Our University”

Information event about the Excellence Strategy

Photo: University of Hamburg / Esfandiari

Within the ongoing competition for clusters of excellence and the 2025 excellence evaluations, members of the Executive University Board have apprised all those studying, teaching, researching, and working at the University of current excellence strategy activities.

11 March 2025|Excellence Strategy

On-site and live-streamed event: On 1 April, find out all you need to know about the Excellence Strategy

Photo of University of Hamburg Main Building

Photo: Frank von Wieding

“Into the Future with Excellence” is the title of the event to which all University members are invited. On Wednesday, 1 April 2025, participants can expect information and an exchange about the University of Excellence’s successes to date and current plans. The event will also be live streamed.

31 January 2025|Excellence Strategy

Stories from the jet age: how flying has changed the world

travelers check in at a new reception area at the Frankfurt Airport in 1974.

Photo: Fraport archive

One rejects flying while the other takes a private jet from Hamburg to Sylt. Lauren Stokes, professor of German history at Northwestern University in the United States, explores the economic, social, and political dimensions of flying. The advanced fellow is currently living and researching at...

30 January 2025|Excellence Strategy

The Beginning of the Universe and the Einstein Telescope

Graphic shows construction of research site.

Photo: MPI for Gravitational Physics

Together with cooperation partners, researchers in the University of Hamburg Cluster of Excellence Quantum Universe are developing and testing components of the future Einstein Telescope. The large research system is a third-generation gravitational wave detector and is set to be built in Europe in...

13 January 2025|Excellence Strategy

Mysterious Damage: Valuable Manuscripts from Tunisia Analysed in Hamburg

Photo: CSMC

Numerous artefacts from one of the world’s most important collections of Islamic manuscripts are affected by an unusual form of degradation. In late 2024, a delegation from Tunisia brought 15 objects to Hamburg and analysed them together with the experts of the Artefact Lab at the Centre for the...

7 January 2025|Excellence Strategy

University of Hamburg Early Career Researchers Win International Competition

Photo: private

A team of doctoral researchers and postdocs in the Department of Physics at the University of Hamburg have won the Airbus-BMW Group Quantum Computing Challenge in one of 5 categories. The international competition is organized by Airbus, BMW, and Amazon in cooperation with the digital magazine The...

3 December 2024|Excellence Strategy

Student Expedition to Stromboli

Photo: Private

The Stromboli is among Europe’s most active volcanoes. Northeast of Sicily, on the island of the same name, it spews ash and rocks almost constantly. A group of budding geophysicists from the University of Hamburg plans to explore it next year. Their trip is funded through the Excellence Strategy of...

2 December 2024|Excellence Strategy

Not Just in Gym Class: Knowledge Exchange Project for More Physical Activity in School Knowledge exchange project for more physical activity in school

Symbolic illustration of movement on the school playground

Photo: BeSS

According to the 2024 children’s health report, 15 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese. To better integrate movement in the school day in the future, a project at the University of Hamburg is now targeting teacher training students in all subjects. It is being financed...

22 November 2024|Excellence Strategy

“We still don’t see climate protection efforts in our numbers”

Just in time for the World Climate Conference, the Global Carbon Budget has once again been calculated this year. It reveals how much carbon dioxide there is in the atmosphere and where human beings stand with regard to climate protection. For the first time, the calculation also includes extensive...

7 November 2024|Research

Understanding “Seebären” and other phenomena: Researchers calculate global tsunami risk

Photo: University of Hamburg/Behrens

Tsunamis do not only occur in distant oceans but also in the North and Baltic Seas. Prof. Dr. Jörn Behrens, professor of numerical methods in geosciences in the Department of Mathematics and the Cluster of Excellence Climate, Climatic Change, and Society (CLICCS), investigates how to calculate these...

15 October 2024|Excellence Strategy

How Experience Economies Develop

Photo: Pixabay CC0

Experiences have become a billion-dollar business around the world. In Germany consumers and consulates have also been investing more money into travel and other leisure activities than for goods. A study at the University of Hamburg is focusing on how the sector is developing, especially with...

27 September 2024|Campus

Student research: Using science to modernize study of medicine

Medical student Ben Lücking intubating a medical simulation manikin

Photo: Private

Studying medicine requires students to study efficiently, to store a broad range of content long-term for their later work as a doctor. The student research group ME-Learn at Universität Hamburg—University of Excellence would like to help shape this learning process more sustainably with the aid of...

5 August 2024|Excellence Strategy

Lessons from History for the Future

Felix Hansen, Alexander Bernard Arthur, and Isabel Vonessen Wilson.

Photo: Private

The project Culture of Remembrance—Our History, Our Culture brings together the University of Hamburg and the University of Education in Winneba, Ghana. Six students take a close look at the history of the Schimmelmann family and their involvement in the slave trade. The research project receives...

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