This year’s Universitätsfest at the University of Bonn was a truly record-breaking event: never before had the University of Excellence bid a fond farewell to so many graduates, with just shy of 1,700 participants signing up for the celebrations. They were joined on the Hofgartenwiese by some 4,000 guests to enjoy a lively party accompanied by glorious sunshine and temperatures to match.

On Monday, the European Commission announced its chosen recipients for the second round of funding in the European Universities initiative. NeurotechEU—the European University of Brain and Technology, which the University of Bonn is part of, is among the alliances to have secured a further four years of funding. Led by Radboud University in Nijmegen, eight other universities are involved in NeurotechEU alongside the University of Bonn. They are joined by over 250 partners from industry, academia and civil society. The aim is to build an innovative, trans-European network of excellence for brain research and brain technologies.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Schultz from the Institute for Computer Science II at the University of Bonn and Priv.-Doz. Dr. Theodor Rüber from the Clinic and Polyclinic for Epileptology at the University Hospital Bonn are the first winners of the “Modelling for Life and Health” Transdisciplinary Research Prize, which is presented by the Modelling and Life & Health Transdisciplinary Research Areas (TRAs) at the University of Bonn. The €120,000 award funds highly innovative research projects at the interface between mathematics or computer science on the one hand and the topics covered by the TRA Life & Health on the other.  

Researchers at the University of Bonn can receive up to € 50,000 to further develop science-based and innovative start-up ideas. For this purpose, the Transfer Center enaCom invites applications for prototyping grants to prepare start-up projects from research for commercialization. The application deadline for the current call is August 25, 2023.

The latest rankings issued by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands have again shown that the University of Bonn is a leading scientific-academic institution and a significant player in international research.  

Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) are awarded to outstanding researchers and are worth millions of euros in funding. Assistant Professor Yongguo Li from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University of Bonn has now obtained a much-sought-after ERC Starting Grant. The researcher is investigating how the lipid metabolism can be influenced so as to “burn” as many calories as possible, thus opening up potential new ways to treat obesity and diabetes.

Two new assistant professors at the University of Bonn are setting out to develop “mini-organs” in order to study metabolic and disease mechanisms. Elena Reckzeh is using these so-called organoids to identify new drug candidates, while Ana Ivonne Vazquez-Armendariz hopes that they can give her a better understanding of lung disease. As Argelander Professors in the Life and Health Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA), the two researchers are working at the interface between various disciplines—and bridging the gap between chemistry, biology and medicine in the process.

“NeurotechEU - the European University of Brain and Technology” held its fifth Board of Rectors meeting at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden. This semiannual meeting of university rectors, organized by an Alliance member institution, was for the first time attended by other staff members involved in the project.