The latest from the overall strategic process
Success in the “European Universities” Competition
Alliance including University of Freiburg reaches next phase / University of Freiburg is successful with the European university alliance EPICUR
All Faculties Participating in Drafts for Clusters of Excellence
Seven cluster initiatives have been asked by the university leadership to elaborate their concept into a draft proposal
Scientific, Social, and Political Challenges
The departments of the Central University Administration introduce their work: Overall Strategic Planning and University Development (GS-UE)
Information on the Overall Strategy
Rector Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein held a speech presenting the foundations for the development of a coherent overall strategy for the University of Freiburg
Strategic Process with an Integrated Approach
The main focus of the strategic process, conceived with a view to 2030, is the joint development of a coherent overall strategy. Strategic milestones, such as the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments, serve as anchoring points on the path to the overarching goal of shaping the university as a place of renewal and sustainability for future research, learning, and exchange with society.
The sub-processes serve as both mirrors and drivers of the overall strategy: whether it’s the mission statement process or the further development of the university’s research profile, whether it’s the structural and development plan for the years 2024–28 or the Excellence Strategy.
The integrated approach of the strategic process also includes the cooperation between the Rectorate and the university’s eleven faculties.
Besides strategic planning, the process always also includes the implementation of the planned measures and a continuous monitoring of the resulting developments.
All members of the university should be integrated into these processes of shaping a socially anchored, distinctive, successful, and self-confident university together: This is the standard by which the University of Freiburg intends to measure itself in the medium term.
University of Freiburg Think Tank 2030
An open, continuously operating think tank is the central pool of innovative potential from which the university will draw with regard to its medium- to long-term strategic development.
Since February 2022, more then 200 members of the university have been grappling with questions of the university’s future in ten working groups. The participants of the think tank include students, researchers from all career stages, and administrative employees.
Some of the working groups are devoted to core university tasks, such as research or academic affairs. Others, for example those on science communications, internationalization, and sustainability, are a reflection of initial thematic priorities set by the Rectorate for the further development of the University of Freiburg.
The working groups have a participatory, open character and can change in composition over time: They offer continuity precisely because of their changeability and are thus in themselves a laboratory for the university’s capacity for renewal and future sustainability.
Members of the university who are interested in getting involved in one of the working groups are invited to send an email to: strategieprozess@zv.uni-freiburg.de.
Overview of the Working Groups
List of members of the working groups
Strategic Milestones
The strategic milestones are anchoring points in the dynamic and evolving process of overall strategic development: They reflect the overall strategy in a tangible and concrete way at different points in time.
Mission Statement
The University of Freiburg will initiate its mission statement process in fall 2022. The mission statement consolidates the University of Freiburg’s overarching values and its self-image with a view to the future.
Research Profile
The university’s research profile is currently being developed further through the collaborative efforts of a project team, the Research Working Group, the Research Commission, and the Rectorate.
With its research profile, the University of Freiburg is setting concentrated and at the same time interdisciplinary focal points, which, on the basis of already proven excellence, will also include efforts to build up an even stronger profile in science and society in the coming years.
View the University of Freiburg’s current research profile
Structural and Development Plan
In the structural and development plan (StrEP), the Rectorate uses the overall strategic process as a basis for formulating goals for the university as well as guidelines for strategic and organizational development for the years 2024–28: How should the university’s core areas of research, teaching, and transfer be further developed? What are the goals and measures for the central cross-cutting issues of sustainability, equal opportunity, internationalization, and digitalization? This also includes planning for professorships and degree programs.
The university will submit the structural and development plan to the State of Baden-Württemberg in summer 2023.
Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments
The Clusters of Excellence funding line
The University of Freiburg’s preparations for the next round of the federal government’s Excellence Strategy have been underway since early 2021. More than 200 researchers developed initial concepts in highly interdisciplinary combinations. On the basis of a science-driven university review process conducted by external scientists, the university asked a total of seven cluster initiatives to develop their concept into a draft proposal to submit to the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the Clusters of Excellence funding line of the Excellence Strategy on 31 May 2023. The two successful clusters in the last round of the Excellence Strategy, CIBSS and livMats, will both be submitting renewal proposals.
The Universities of Excellence funding line
The call for proposals for the Universities of Excellence funding line is scheduled to be advertised in spring 2024.
More information is available on the DFG schedule.
European University Alliances
The University of Freiburg integrates the possibilities of the two confederations Eucor and EPICUR to allow all members of the university to benefit to the greatest possible extent from the programs of the European alliances.
The success in the “European Universities” competition in summer 2022 was an important milestone for this integration.
As a committed member of Eucor and EPICUR, the University of Freiburg seeks to expand the synergies between the two alliances in order to pursue its own strategic goals as well as the common goals of the European university alliances even more vigorously.
Examples of these goals are the facilitation of mobility, innovation in studies and teaching, the simplified mutual recognition of credits, and the creation of new incentives for further collaboration.
