Friedrich Schiller University Jena named a university of excellence

Cheers, joy and recognition of the achievement: Thuringian state politicians react with enthusiasm to the news that the Friedrich Schiller University (FSU) Jena can now call itself a “University of Excellence”. It was a great day for Thuringia, but also a “huge achievement,” said Thuringia’s Prime Minister Mario Voigt. “We knew beforehand that FSU was excellent. Today we actually got it confirmed. And that is your achievement,” said the CDU politician after Federal Science Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) announced the decision in Bonn.

Cutting-edge research from Thuringia

State Science Minister Christian Tischner spoke of an outstanding success. “The FSU enables top research in the three main areas of natural sciences, life sciences and humanities and social sciences and promotes science at the highest international level,” explained the CDU politician in a statement. Behind the excellence decision are researchers who have worked on concepts, applications and experiments for years without knowing whether it will be enough in the end.

The science policy spokesman for the Thuringian SPD parliamentary group, Lutz Liebscher, also sees the award as a success for Thuringia as a science location as a whole. The decision was based on almost two decades of scientific development work and a joint effort by many involved, emphasized Liebscher, who is also the SPD parliamentary group leader.

International reputation

CDU parliamentary group leader Andreas Bühl explained that Jena had prevailed in a demanding scientific competition and was now officially in line with world-class universities. “This strengthens the national and international reputation of our entire university location.”

The University of Jena is the first university to receive this award in the Free State. Thuringia's largest university with around 17,000 students received funding for two cross-disciplinary research projects - so-called clusters of excellence - in May 2025. This enabled it to apply for status as a university of excellence. Last November, the university said it submitted the “Light. Life. Liberty. - Connecting People and Ideas” (German: “Light. Life. Freedom. - Connecting People and Ideas”) submitted for application. A further step was the visit of an international expert group to Jena in June of this year.

New applications from eleven universities and associations nationwide were available for selection. Up to five new locations of excellence could be selected. In addition to Jena, the universities of Freiburg and Cologne as well as the association of the Rhine-Main universities of Darmstadt, Frankfurt and Mainz and the association of the University of Bochum and the TU Dortmund (“Ruhr Innovation Lab”) were awarded the contract.