In Jena, research activities in biology, chemistry, and physics as well as the application of the results go hand in hand. There is a long list of all the scientific achievements and successful innovations attesting that the interdisciplinarity of research activities is especially appreciated here.

Aside from the tradition-rich Friedrich Schiller University and the biggest University of Applied Sciences in the Free State of Thuringia, Jena hosts three Max Planck Institutes, one institute of the Fraunhofer Association, two Leibniz Institutes as well as a variety of notable research institutions.

In Jena, more than 3,300 scientists are employed at the two colleges, the university medical center and various institutes. Some of these institutes have gathered on the Beutenberg Campus, which visitors like to call the heart of the Optical Valley – Jena’s variant of the famous Californian Silicon Valley. This is the place where basic and applied research is performed at top level.

A lot of Jena’s success stories tell about products developed in scientific labs that are established globally nowadays. The city on the river Saale is known as the high-tech centre in Central Germany in many fields of research. In addition, almost 26,000 students – making up one quarter of the total population of this city – are bound to assure the situation to stay as it is – as Jena’s future scientists, skilled personnel and entrepreneurs.