North Rhine-Westphalia’s culture and science minister Ina Brandes handed the University of Bonn a funding commitment for its physics department on 26 May 2026. The €113 million will go into modernising and renewing the university’s Physics Institute and comes entirely from the state’s Nordrhein-Westfalen-Plan for good infrastructure. Physics is involved in three of Bonn’s eight clusters of excellence funded since January 2026, which the state describes as a concentration of top-level physics research unique in Germany.

What will be built

In the coming years, a modern laboratory and workshop building is to replace the Physics Institute, which was erected from 1913 onwards. The listed building will provide space for the historic lecture hall, seminar and meeting rooms, the department library, the institute administration and offices for many research groups. Highly technical uses such as laboratories will be housed in a replacement new building. In total, around 4,100 m² of usable floor space will be renewed and modernised with the money. Completion of the buildings is currently planned for 2033.

The research behind it

The institute’s main research areas are particle physics, condensed matter and photonics, and accelerator physics. It is involved in the clusters ML4Q, DYNAVERSE and Color Meets Flavor. ML4Q focuses on basic research into future quantum technologies. DYNAVERSE studies the origin of the universe and how the Earth formed from it. Color Meets Flavor deals with the smallest building blocks of the universe. After the appointment of the later Nobel laureate Wolfgang Paul, Bonn became an internationally visible centre of particle and accelerator physics from the 1950s. Bonn physicists have taken part in experiments at CERN and DESY. Around 31,000 students study at the university’s seven faculties. Minister Brandes said: “Excellent research needs excellent infrastructure.”

Where the money comes from

The Nordrhein-Westfalen-Plan for good infrastructure is the largest infrastructure and investment programme in the state’s history. Its main figures are:

  • about €31.2 billion from the federal government and the state over twelve years;
  • about €21.3 billion for municipalities and just under €10 billion for state infrastructure;
  • €2.3 billion for higher education, research, teaching and transfer.

The plan funds high-impact investments whose financing was not foreseen in the regular state budget.