With 14 faculties and 150 institutes, Alma Mater Lipsiensis is a traditional comprehensive university offering a wide range of disciplines: over 28,000 students are enrolled in 150 degree programs.
The university conducts research and teaching at the highest level in fields ranging from biotechnology to digital humanities—and has done so continuously since its founding in 1409.
The Leipzig University of Applied Sciences (HTWK Leipzig) combines practice-oriented teaching with applied research. The university’s broad engineering and technical focus is what sets it apart in the region. Together with its programs in business, social sciences, and culture, HTWK Leipzig offers a diverse range of teaching and research opportunities across its seven faculties.
HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management is a university-level institution authorized to award doctoral and postdoctoral degrees. Since 1898, it has been dedicated to university-level research and practice-oriented teaching in the fields of management and entrepreneurship—with the goal of educating entrepreneurial, responsible, and efficient leaders. For this, it consistently ranks among the top institutions in global rankings.
With approximately 800 students and over 140 staff members, Germany’s oldest business school offers nine graduate programs.
Its research focuses include entrepreneurship, leadership, and sustainability. It supports startups through initiatives such as the HHL DIGITAL SPACE, the SpinLab – The HHL Accelerator, and the HHL Women Entrepreneurs Initiative. In November 2024, HHL was reaccredited by AACSB, the international seal of quality for excellence in research and teaching.
Founded in 1764, the HGB is one of the oldest art academies in Germany. Approximately 600 students are currently enrolled in the four degree programs: Painting and Graphic Arts, Book Arts and Graphic Design, Photography, and Media Art. Since 2009, the academy has also offered a master’s program in Curatorial Studies, the only one of its kind in Germany.
The University of Music and Theatre in Leipzig offers its approximately 1,200 students a broad and academically rigorous range of programs across 12 disciplines, as well as some 700 public events each year for interested audiences. Founded in 1843 as a conservatory by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, it was the first institution of higher musical education in Germany. The HMT’s second main building is located at Dittrichring 21.
As the first branch campus of a British public university in Germany, Lancaster University Leipzig offers students British bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and management. As a research-intensive institution, we contribute to basic research and knowledge transfer and help prepare the workforce for Saxony’s future.
The State Study Academy Leipzig is one of seven campuses of the Saxony Cooperative State University. The Saxony Cooperative State University offers a three-year dual degree program in Leipzig across various bachelor’s degree programs in the fields of engineering and business. Each semester is divided equally between a theoretical study phase at the State Study Academy and a practical study phase with a partner company. The goal is to provide targeted academic and professional training to prepare specialists and managers for the regional economy.
Merseburg University of Applied Sciences was founded on April 1, 1992, and today serves as a center for applied science and research in the historic industrial and cultural region of southern Saxony-Anhalt. Set on a green campus that connects all its facilities, it offers ideal conditions for a successful academic career.
Thanks to modern facilities, practice-oriented teaching, and unique degree programs, Merseburg University of Applied Sciences attracts prospective students and doctoral candidates from all over Germany and beyond—one in four students comes from abroad. Currently, around 3,000 students are enrolled in over 30 degree programs, including part-time and dual programs.
The broad range of programs covers fields in computer science and engineering, business and social sciences, as well as media and culture. In addition to a solid academic education, the university offers targeted specializations—from sexology to polymer materials science—and provides practice-oriented, internationally recognized educational content. In this way, it is a recognized, indispensable component of the higher education and research landscape in and around Leipzig.
Furthermore, in addition to their specialized knowledge, students acquire valuable additional qualifications and degrees that specifically address the needs of businesses. This helps retain skilled workers in the region, and companies benefit from a direct transfer of knowledge.
The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology studies human history through comparative analyses of genes, cultures, cognitive abilities, and social systems in past and present human populations, as well as in groups of primates closely related to humans. The Institute brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines who take an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human evolution.
How can we detect dyslexia even earlier? How do we understand and share the feelings and intentions of others? How do we keep our brains healthy? Research at the MPI CBS addresses these and other questions, investigating human cognitive abilities and brain processes, particularly the neural basis of higher brain functions such as language, emotions, and social behavior.
Is everything impossible without math? Yes! No encryption, no medical imaging, and no train schedules without mathematics. Mathematical models and methods permeate every aspect of modern life, whether in society, politics, economics, or biology. The interaction between mathematics and the natural sciences is the focus of the institute’s work.
Biological diversity, functioning ecosystems, clean water, and healthy soils are the foundations of our natural world. They are essential for human existence and societal development. At the UFZ, we investigate the complex interactions between humans and the environment in the context of global change. Environmental research generates knowledge, technologies, and potential solutions designed to help find ways to reconcile a healthy environment with societal development. Core research areas at the UFZ are (1) land use, biodiversity, and ecosystem services, (2) management of water and soil resources, (3) chemicals in the environment, (4) environmental and biotechnologies, (5) modeling and environmental monitoring, and (6) social science-based environmental research.
Desert dust from Africa found in Leipzig? It was detected in aerosols, tiny airborne particles. Aerosols and clouds play a key role in the human-environment-climate system, with implications for our health. They are studied at this globally unique institute. In their own cloud laboratory, researchers succeeded in creating the first artificial cloud.
The IOM conducts application-oriented basic research in the field of radiation-matter interactions. In addition to elucidating physical and chemical interaction processes, its core competencies primarily involve the modification and development of ultra-precise and functional surfaces and thin films using ion, electron, laser, and plasma technologies, as well as the characterization of these materials. The goal of the research and development work is the sustainable transfer of processes and products in economically relevant and forward-looking technology fields.
The Institute conducts research across national and disciplinary boundaries into the history and culture of our immediate Eastern European neighbors. The German Research Council has recognized that the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe has not only modernized the entire field of East Central European studies through its work, but has also significantly intensified scholarly dialogue among researchers from the individual countries of East Central Europe.
At the Dubnow Institute, some 30 scholars conduct interdisciplinary research with a pan-European perspective on Jewish communities from the modern era to the present day, focusing primarily on Central and Eastern Europe. This includes areas of Jewish emigration, particularly Israel and America. The internationally renowned research institute is committed to the secular tradition of its namesake, the Jewish-Russian historian Simon Dubnow (1860–1941), who served as a cultural mediator between Eastern and Western European Jewry.
The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) in Leipzig is the only non-university research institute for geography in Germany. It is jointly funded by the federal government and all the federal states and is one of more than 90 research and service institutions within the Leibniz Association. The IfL combines basic geographical research with practice-oriented approaches. It analyzes socio-spatial dynamics in Germany and Europe, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe. A variety of methods are employed to examine globalization processes and spatial structures. A special focus is placed on the role of visual media and maps in knowledge production. In addition, the IfL researches the historical development of geographical thinking and critically reflects on geographical knowledge.
The German Biomass Research Center serves as a central and independent thought leader in the field of energy and material applications of biomass, focusing on how limited biomass resources can contribute to existing and future energy systems in a sustainable manner and with the highest possible efficiency and effectiveness. The work of the DBFZ aims to expand knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of using renewable raw materials for energy and integrated material applications in a bio-based economy as a whole, and to permanently secure Germany’s leading position as an industrial hub in this sector.
The Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology IZI conducts research and develops specialized solutions at the intersection of medicine, life sciences, and engineering. One of its main tasks is contract research for biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and medical technology companies, hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, and research institutions. Within the business areas of active ingredients, cell and gene therapy, diagnostics, and biosystems engineering, Fraunhofer IZI develops, optimizes, and validates processes, materials, and products.
The Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) conducts research in the fields of energy, health, and matter. Its research focuses on the following questions: How can energy and resources be used efficiently, safely, and sustainably? How can cancers be better visualized, characterized, and effectively treated? How do matter and materials behave under the influence of high fields and at the smallest scales?
The HZDR develops and operates large-scale research facilities that are also used by external visitors: the Ion Beam Center, the Dresden High-Field Magnet Laboratory, and the ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources.
It is a member of the Helmholtz Association, has six locations (Dresden, Freiberg, Görlitz, Grenoble, Leipzig, and Schenefeld near Hamburg), and employs nearly 1,500 staff members—including approximately 680 scientists, of whom 200 are doctoral candidates.
The Cyber Agency was founded in 2020 as a federal government-owned enterprise. The sole owner of the Cyber Agency is the Federal Republic of Germany, represented by the Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building, and Community (BMI). Its mission is to contribute to Germany’s technological sovereignty in cyberspace by promoting research and groundbreaking innovations in the field of cybersecurity and related key technologies. To this end, funding is specifically allocated to ambitious research projects in the areas of enabling technologies, critical systems, and human-machine interaction. Research topics are identified based on trend analyses, input from the innovation ecosystem, and feedback from stakeholders in internal and external security.
The project results are made available to the Federal Government of Germany.
Since its founding as the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences in 1846, the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig has been committed to the tradition of the academic ideal shaped by Leibniz, bringing together leading scholars from a wide range of disciplines in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia for regular scholarly discourse. In addition, the Academy currently conducts over 20 long-term research projects, many of them in close cooperation with universities, colleges, and non-university research institutions. The Saxon Academy of Sciences is a member of the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. Through the Academies’ Program, the Union coordinates the largest long-term research program in the humanities and cultural studies in the Federal Republic of Germany.
As a federal agency, the German Weather Service is part of the federal government’s departmental research system. In addition to providing daily weather and climate advisory services, the Leipzig branch office conducts applied meteorological and climatological research aimed at improving weather and climate forecasts and supporting measures to adapt to climate change, particularly in the context of land-use processes. To this end, there is close collaboration with universities, colleges, and research institutions, as well as relevant authorities, within the framework of robust partnerships. Students and visiting researchers are regularly supervised as part of internships, academic theses, and exchange programs. This complements the various teaching positions held by branch office staff at colleges and universities.
The Helmholtz Institute for Metabolism, Obesity, and Vascular Research (HI-MAG) at the University of Leipzig and Leipzig University Hospital investigates the molecular causes of adipose tissue dysfunction and, using a clinical-translational research approach, aims to develop new precision therapies for the treatment of obesity and its associated comorbidities and to make these available to patients more quickly. In doing so, the institute combines the clinical expertise of Leipzig University Hospital with innovative approaches from the preclinical research at Helmholtz Munich.
The Leipzig Science Network benefits from close collaboration between the city administration and scientific institutions. Executive Director Dr. Kathleen Schlütter emphasizes: “Through its membership, the city underscores its commitment to Leipzig as a center of science and its appreciation for cross-institutional cooperation, which we hope will help us better address challenges in research, teaching, knowledge transfer, and infrastructure. This also strengthens the association’s capacity to act, for example in the areas of location marketing and urban development, as well as promoting a unified public image of Leipzig as a city of science. In the future, the city will not only have a seat at the table but will also be the first municipality in Germany to be a visible member of such a science network.”
