Research topics of the Berlin sciences

The rich expertise of Berlin's scientific landscape

Berlin is a unique science location: Berlin universities offer more than 1,000 different degree programs, in which more than 180,000 students conduct research. About 17% of them come from abroad in to get to know the capital’s open research atmosphere. The promising cooperations between universities, non-university research institutions, and technology centers makes Berlin a hotspot for business and science.

The science metropolis unites a total of:

4 Universities
the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin
7 Universities of applied sciences
4 Art colleges
approx. 30 state-recognized private colleges
and around 70 non-university research institutions.

Facts about research locations in Berlin

Non-university research in Berlin:

In addition, there are research centers of the Helmholtz Association, institutes of the Leibniz Association, the Max Planck Society, and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, as well as independent research institutes. The collaboration of researchers is interdisciplinary: whether it is clusters of excellence, graduate schools, or special research areas - Berlin offers cutting-edge research.

Overview: Scientific Institutions

The influence of the Excellence Initiative on Berlin sciences

Graduate schools, clusters of excellence, and future concepts: The three funding lines of the Excellence Initiative aim equally at funding young scientists as well as top-level research. Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin belong to the eleven German universities selected to receive funding in the Excellence Initiative.

Crucial for the success of the capital are cooperations: The network between the various scientific institutions is strengthened, for example, by the Berlin Institute for Applied Research (IFAF) or the Berlin University Alliance.

Berlin is the most successful Federal State when it comes to attracting graduate schools and clusters of excellence. On the one hand, the funding of around 80 million euros underlines the success of the Berlin universities, while on the other hand it further enhances the excellence of the science location. The 50 professorships in the field of digital transformation announced at the Einstein Center Digital Future (ECDF) alone show that Berlin is further expanding its position as Europe’s science metropolis.

Research focus in Berlin: The German Center of Digitization

Digitization is being researched and driven forward in the capital. Central hubs of the Digitization Strategy include the following institutions:

Einstein Center Digital Future – Inter-university and interdisciplinary alliance for the promotion and research of the digitization of society.
Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society – Consortium of all Berlin universities as well as the University of Potsdam and Fraunhofer FOKUS to investigate the progressing digitization.
Fraunhofer High Performance Center “Digital Transformation” – In conjunction with the four Fraunhofer institutes FOKUS, HHI, IPK, and IZM in Berlin, the city of the future and the digitization of industry and production are being investigated here.

Numerous events in Berlin are dedicated to the broad field of digitization:

Technology Innovation Science Match – International experts present their research results in Berlin. From Massive MIMO to Human-Machine-Interaction and Reinforcement Learning, Science Match will discuss the most important digital topics.
Asia Pacific Week – The economic, scientific, cultural, and political dialogue with representatives and partners from Asia has a long tradition in Berlin. In particular, the digital cities of the future were an important topic at the APW 2018.

Berlin also offers new majors and exciting studies around in the field of digitization:

“Humanoid Robotics" degree program – The Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin is planning the nation’s first major of its kind in 2018.
Digital Transformation in the Finance Sector – Digitization is also playing an increasingly important role in financing strategies.

Medical research in Berlin - A dynamic healthcare location

Berlin is home to the Charité (largest university hospital in Germany), the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC), and the Berlin Institute of Health (BIH).

Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – 17,500 employees, 4,000 scientists, 7,200 students, and 800,000 cases a year: The Charité is the center of medical research in Berlin.
Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine – The member of the Helmholtz Association is committed to medical progress, for example, in the field of cancer research.
Berlin Institute of Health (BIH) – Translation and precision medicine are the research areas of this scientific institution.

Berlin - a leading international location in the field of health economy

HealthCapital: The cluster of the health economy supports the promotion of Berlin as one of the leading locations in the fields of healthcare and life sciences.

Big Data, Digital Health, and Telemedicine: The research focus of the innovative pharmaceutical, medtech, and biotech companies, which are in a network with the many medical institutions in the city and make the health care Berlin so attractive.

Scientific events in Berlin around the topic of medical research

BIONNALE – Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical technology; Life sciences, digital health, and speed lectures: The BIONNALE is Germany’s largest network meeting in the field of medical technology.
Berlin Health Week – The Berlin-Brandenburg Health Week is an annual meeting of the healthcare industry. The highlight is the World Health Summit, which brings together international experts.

Humanities and Social Sciences - Berlin attracts industry experts from all over the world

In Berlin, interdisciplinary expertise meets diverse fields of research in the humanities and social sciences – from the ancient world to global change processes.

Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) – Unique research institution in Germany dedicated to the structure, acquisition, and processing of human language.
Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung (ZfL) – Literature in interdisciplinary and intercultural discourse: The independent institute researches history of theory, world literature, and life knowledge.
Berlin Social Science Center (WZB) – Institute that promotes basic research into the innovation opportunities of modern societies in an international comparison.

The Department of Philosophy and Humanities at the Freie Universität Berlin

The campus of the Freie Universität in Dahlem houses seven institutes – from the Institute of Theater Studies to the Institute for Cultural and Media Management. It also offers the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies, the Dahlem Humanities Center, as well as other research centers and libraries, such as the “The Berlin Brain” philological library, which contains more than 750,000 media.

Future-oriented research center - Mathematical sciences in Berlin

The Einstein Center for Mathematics Berlin, opened in 2014, is a joint project of three mathematical research centers in Berlin:

DFG Matheon Research Center – Application-oriented mathematics research for key technologies, e.g. in biotechnology, micro- and optoelectronics, as well as information and communication technologies.
Berlin Mathematical School (BMS) – Graduate School of the Berlin Universities with research areas such as stochastics and financial mathematics.
German Centre for Mathematics Teacher Education (DZLM) – Center for teacher training in mathematics: cross-national, practical, and research-based.

Scientific events in Berlin that are interdisciplinary

Long Night of the Sciences - From indigenous drum languages, (co-)narrative intervention and the effects of social media on childhood to acoustic waves on a combustion test bed and the functioning of antibodies: The Long Night of Science offers exciting insights into the different disciplines of Berlin's scientific landscape.
Falling Walls Conference - Building bridges and tearing down walls: The Falling Walls Foundation science event brings international experts to Berlin and encourages interdisciplinary discussion about innovation, research and society itself.