Research

1 December 2025|Research

Funding for Long-Term Research Project on Middle Low German Grammar

Photo: Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel

Middle Low German text culture is an integral part of northern Europe’s cultural heritage. A new long-term research project on Middle Low German grammar will deepen our understanding of the linguistic structures of Middle Low German. The goal for the next 18 years is to establish a multidimensional...

12 November 2025|Research

€2 Million for Research on Migratory Bird Navigation

Photo: Adobe Stock

An important, still unanswered question in quantum biology is how biomagnetic perception, which migratory animals use for navigation, works. A research team headed by Prof. Dr. Michael Thorwart at the University of Hamburg believes that the retinal molecule in the eyes of migratory birds and insects...

8 October 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder strengthens the Department of Social Sciences.

Photo: LIB/Pour

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: sociologist Prof. Dr. Simone Rödder

1 October 2025|Research

New platform makes it easier to access services from Hamburg foundations.

A person works on a laptop with the new foundation platform on the screen

Photo: Hamburg/Canva Foundation Office

On 1 October, a new platform went online that provides more transparency and guidance through Hamburg’s diverse foundation landscape. For the first time, users can quickly and intuitively search through the funding opportunities and programs offered by more than 200 foundations. The database is...

25 September 2025|Research

Long-Term Study in the Elbe Estuary: Fish Population Down by 90 Percent

Photo: University of Hamburg / Thiel

In the last 4 decades, fish fauna in the Elbe estuary has changed dramatically according a project jointly conducted by the University of Hamburg and the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB). Among other things, the project’s researchers examine how environmental factors...

15 September 2025|Research

Sustainability Reports: AI analyzes topics and supply chains

Sustainability topics in the Lufthansa annual report for 2024, depicted in a “topic model.”

Photo: UHH/Cordes

When corporations address sustainability they do it for marketing purposes and often in standardized ways. Hannes Cordes, who is working for the professorship for logistics and supply chain management headed by Prof. Dr. Guido Voigt, is looking at how corporate sustainability reports can be used to...

5 September 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Mira Sack strengthens Education.

Photo: Claudia Bickel

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: theater educator Prof. Dr. Mira Sack

1 September 2025|Research

When Tom Aces a Quiz—Researching Spontaneous Judgments

Symbolic illustration on forming judgments, with colorful, stylized overlapping human heads

Photo: iStock/wildpixel

Even when we just read about someone’ behavior, we often judge within seconds. What mechanisms are at play and which information influences our value judgments? This is what Prof. Dr. Juliane Degner and Jana Mangels (Social Psychology) want to find out.

27 August 2025|Research

Once upon a time—a project examining links between fairy tales and economic growth

Illustration of the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf

Photo: iStock/ZU_09

Values and norms have been passed on in legends and fairy tales for centuries. A research team led by Prof. Dr. Stefan Voigt from the Faculty of Law used artificial intelligence to investigate if this is still a growth factor in today’s economies.

17 July 2025|Research

Social norms, law, and justice—normative conflicts and how they arise

Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens during his research in Tanzania.

Photo: UHH/Bens

Many legal issues, for example the question of property, are regulated differently in different societies. Prof. Dr. Jonas Bens, Heisenberg Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Studies in Culture and Arts at the University of Hamburg, is investigating the conflicts that arise from such...

14 July 2025|Research

IMPAK study on the participation of people with complex disabilities

Prof. Dr. Iris Beck and Prof. Dr. Daniel Franz

Photo: University of Hamburg / Beck (private)

Various laws promote the participation and inclusion of people with disabilities. However, particularly in the case of people with complex impairments, this is hardly ever achieved. In the IMPAK study, Prof. Dr. Iris Beck and Prof. Dr. Daniel Franz examined the conditions that enable individual...

25 June 2025|Research

Doing the Research: How Can AI Recognize Causality?

As part of the study, the image of a toy was created using DALL-E, with the instruction not to violate any copyright.

Photo: AI-generated using DALL-E

AI is now part of almost all areas of life. Machine learning methods can help us identify patterns in large amounts of data, but can they also identify and evaluate causal connections? Dr. Philipp Bach, who is working in the team headed by Prof. Dr. Martin Spindler, professor of statistics at the...

23 June 2025|Research

STC Active City: “We are assuming a central coordinating role in the long term.”

Dr. Nils Schumacher, Maryam Blumenthal, and Andy Grote (from left)

Photo: Mona Herden

For over 5 years, a team from the Institute of Human Movement Science has been looking at how active Hamburg is. The project led to the founding of Science and Transfer Center Active City. In the interview below, the center’s head, Dr. Nils Schumacher, talks about their work, which was also...

4 June 2025|Research

International, interdisciplinary, intensive Starting Your Researcher Career with Doctoral Networks

Young people form a circle and place their hands on top of each other

Photo: University of Hamburg / von Wieding

Funded by the European Union Doctoral Networks enables early career researchers to do research within a university consortium and learn from experts from all over Europe. So far, 5 of these networks have been coordinated at the University of Hamburg. At the start of the current call for...

30 May 2025|Research

Building on UKE research on the maternal immune system and kidney filtration

Photo: UKE/Axel Kirchhof

The German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) has authorized funding for 2 new collaborative research centers involving UKE researchers. The Collaborative Research Center CRC 1713 is investigating the activation of maternal immune systems during pregnancy, while the...

6 May 2025|Research

Humboldt Professorship for Prof. Dr. Ingrid Piller

Prof. Dr. Ingrid Piller with the Alexander von Humboldt award

Photo: Humboldt Foundation / David Ausserhofer

Six Alexander von Humboldt professorships were awarded at a ceremony on 5 May 2025. One of the recipients is Prof. Dr. Ingrid Piller, who had a professorship at the Australian Macquarie University before joining the University of Hamburg.

28 April 2025|Research

How our brain responds to mistakes and why that can make us sick

Photo: University of Hamburg / Göttling

To err is human, yet some people’s brains respond to mistakes with great alarm. Prof. Dr. Anja Riesel, professor of clinical psychology and psychotherapy with a focus on clinical neuroscience at the University of Hamburg, is looking at the role this plays in connection with obsessive-compulsive...

24 April 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Astrid Zech strengthens Human Movement Science.

Photo: private

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: sports expert Prof. Dr. Astrid Zech.

8 April 2025|Research

Welcome aboard: Prof. Dr. Hartmut von Sass strengthens the Humanities.

Photo: @HannahZufall

Every year, the University of Hamburg welcomes numerous new researchers. This series introduces them and their areas of research. This time: theologian and religion philosopher Prof. Dr. Hatrmut von Sass.

7 April 2025|Research

Hamburg Center for Kidney Health: Video Insights Into Kidney Research

Screenshot aus dem Video über Nierenforschung

At the Hamburg Center for Kidney Health, Shuya Liu, research group leader of the Kidney Targeted Gene Therapy team, and Badr Khbouz, researcher in glomerular biology and renal filtration in kidney disease, are tackling the mysteries of kidney disease head-on.

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