From Ideas to Solutions: How Freiburg’s Research Makes an Impact
Freiburg, 15/04/2026
The University of Freiburg aims to help solve the great challenges of our time with inter- and transdisciplinary research and is thus taking on responsibility for society.
Climate change, democracy under threat, rapid advancements in AI: The University of Freiburg aims to help solve the great challenges of our time. This responsibility is an integral part of its mission statement. Researchers of all faculties are collaborating across disciplinary boundaries, because only in this way is it possible to tackle complex issues. The transfer of technology, knowledge, and education to society is integral to ensuring that their findings and inventions realize their full potential. The University of Freiburg understands transfer as an open space in which research, civil society, industry, and politics come together to shape a safe and liveable future. Partnerships make an impact that extends far beyond what individuals can achieve alone.
Research and society benefit from strong partnerships
Locally, the University of Freiburg cooperates with a research-intensive medical centre, five Fraunhofer Institutes, and two Max Planck Institutes. The basic research they conduct together generates ideas that could help solve problems that are not yet foreseeable today. Through their cooperation in applied research, by contrast, they are producing innovations that benefit society directly, for example in industry or in the treatment of patients.
In addition, the University collaborates closely with the City of Freiburg, regional trade associations, and further actors from the region. The institutional form for this is the Innovation Alliance, whose partners are following the objective of making research findings useful for local businesses – for example through start-ups and spin-offs. Moreover, the Innovation Alliance also addresses common challenges faced by the University, the city, and the region. For example, the University contributes its expertise in the areas of sustainability, the energy transition in heating, and the mobility transition. This leads to a transfer ecosystem that benefits all partners and does not end at national borders: The University of Freiburg is involved in the development of the Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine Network, in which partners from Germany, France, and Switzerland are cooperating in the area of knowledge transfer.
University of Freiburg supports researchers and students with transfer activities
The University of Freiburg’s Technology Transfer Office supports researchers and students when they want to found a start-up, register a patent, or conclude an agreement with an industry partner. In this way, research findings are quickly transformed into economic opportunities. Together with the Universities of Applied Sciences of Furtwangen and Offenburg, the University of Freiburg is building up the start-up network ‘Schwarzwälder Gründergeist’ (Black Forest start-up spirit), which strengthens the entire region as a place to found a new business.
With the WisskomQ qualification programme, the University of Freiburg supports researchers of all career stages in deepening their science communication skills. It is one of the first universities in Germany to offer a programme of this kind. In this way, researchers learn to communicate their knowledge even better and engage in a mutually beneficial dialogue with citizens.
The following three projects by Freiburg researchers serve to illustrate how transfer works.
AI model generates climate projection and helps cities develop heat protection measures
Cities have seen a marked increase in thermal stress as a result of climate change, and it will continue to increase in the future. Particularly susceptible are groups like pregnant women, the elderly, or the homeless. This presents cities with the challenge of protecting their citizens. As every city has its own individual structure due to its buildings, green spaces, and location, it is important to calculate future thermal stress in the greatest possible detail. Only in this way is it possible to develop tailored measures for protecting people better from extreme heat.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Freiburg and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology led by the environmental meteorologist Prof. Dr. Andreas Christen has developed an AI model that provides a locally scaled climate projection for the future Freiburg. ‘Our AI model allows us to literally analyse the heat development at every doorstep. To do so, we combine geodata like building heights and vegetation structures with weather forecast or climate projection data like air temperature or radiation’, says Christen. After the model has been validated and adapted to specific urban circumstances, it can also be transferred to other cities.
„Our AI model allows us to literally analyse the heat development at every doorstep. To do so, we combine geodata like building heights and vegetation structures with weather forecast or climate projection data like air temperature or radiation.“
Prof. Dr Andreas Christen
Head of the Department of Environmental Meteorology
Fighting colorectal cancer: From the lab to a start-up
The Freiburg company EMUNO Therapeutics GmbH develops precision compounds that support the treatment of advanced colorectal cancer. ‘We want to make therapies more effective, reduce side-effects, and thus reduce the psychological strain on patients’, says the pharmacist Dr. Emilia Neuwirt. She runs the start-up together with the neuropathologist Prof. Dr. Olaf Groß. A spin-off of the Medical Center – University of Freiburg, the company is a product of Neuwirt’s dissertation project, which Groß supervised and which was conducted at the Cluster of Excellence CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies. In her dissertation project, the scientist searched for suitable compounds to achieve a better understanding of the signalling paths of immune cells.
It became apparent only gradually that this project would lead to a patent filing and the founding of a company, says Neuwirt. The two researchers are receiving support from the University of Freiburg’s Founders Office. EMUNO Therapeutics is currently working on a clinical application for EMT-224, a compound developed by Neuwirt and Groß. The European Commission is supporting the further development of the compound with an EIC Transition Grant worth approximately 2.5 euros.
Researchers develop heat protection concept with municipalities
One of the obstacles to developing heat protection concepts for smaller municipalities is limited financial resources. The geographers Prof. Dr. Hartmut Fünfgeld and Dr. Dennis Fila are working together with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on a process schema that helps municipalities to develop heat protection concepts. The project is part of the joint Sustainability Innovation Campus, which is being funded by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts. The state is concentrating the competencies of science, industry, and society in five central research fields at a total of five innovation campuses.
The researchers collaborated with Ihringen on the Kaiserstuhl until summer 2025 to develop the process schema. ‘Ihringen is already considered one of the heat hotspots in Germany and will be hit by more frequent and more intense heatwaves in the future. As a small community with around 6,300 inhabitants, it is excellently suited for the first project phase’, says Fünfgeld. Ihringen’s citizens developed heat protection measures together with the researchers in a workshop. Ihringen plans to incorporate heat issues into urban planning in the future and has developed a protection concept for schools. Many of the measures could also be transferred to other municipalities, says Fila. In the second project phase, the researchers aim to gain further experience applying the process scheme with practice partners in three small municipalities and publish the results on an online heat portal for municipalities by the end of 2026.