Dear Readers,

2025 was an excellent year for Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg – excellent in the truest sense of the word. In May, we were the first and only university in Saxony-Anhalt to receive Cluster of Excellence funding as part of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.
 
The funding will go to the “Center for Chiral Electronics”, which launched in January 2026. The centre’s research focus is on new concepts for high-performance, energy-efficient electronics. This success is a milestone for Halle as a research location and demonstrates our university’s scientific potential. It shows that not only can our university keep pace with international cutting-edge research, it can also set the direction. I am convinced that we have this kind of potential in other areas of our university as well. We need to foster this potential through focused and ongoing support, particularly as part of co-operation with our strong partners in Halle, Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany, and beyond.

The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research iDiv is a prime example of an extremely successful collaboration that initially received external funding and is now a permanent structure. When DFG funding came to an end, support of this internationally renowned research centre was jointly picked up by the federal states, the universities of Halle, Jena and Leipzig, and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research UFZ. 

For us, the challenges surrounding structural change and transformation are important topics for research, but also for the direct transfer of scientific findings into practice. The decision to phase out coal in the Central German Mining District, demographic change in the region, as well as global developments like climate change and the extinction of species mean that our region is experiencing fundamental upheavals in work, infrastructure, social cohesion and everyday life. At the same time, new opportunities for innovation, training and sustainable development are emerging. As a centre for transformation research in Saxony-Anhalt, we not only support these developments through science, but we also work on practical proposals and ideas for the future.

In this way, we are contributing to innovative and sustainable value chains in the Central German Mining District within a European context. This major commitment is reflected in the large-scale structural change projects “Just Transition Center” (JTC), “DiP Saxony- Anhalt – Model Region for the Bioeconomy” and “TPG – Digital Future of Care and Health”, which are coordinated by MLU and are already providing important impetus for transformation in the region. 
Our strong commitment to the region is also reflected in our excellent enrolment figures. By October, more than 4 100 new students had chosen to study at MLU, almost 800 of whom had enrolled in our teacher training programme. One of our core social responsibilities is to offer high-quality, future-oriented teaching for the qualification of skilled workers directly for the Central German region. 

However, these numerous achievements in research and teaching are only possible thanks to reliable and stable conditions. 2025 was a good year for us in this respect as well. We were able to sign target agreements with the state for our university, for the University Medicine, and for teacher training. This means that key development projects and strategies have now been formally established. The strategic basis for this is the University Development Plan (UDP), which was adopted by the Academic Senate at the beginning of 2024 and is now being implemented in many areas.

In 2025, we also celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Central German University Alliance. We intend to leverage our strong partnership with the universities in Jena and Leipzig to make an even stronger impact in teaching in the future. At an international level, we consolidated and further developed our partnerships in Eastern Europe and Central Asia last year. For example, we renewed several agreements and established new contacts during a delegation trip to Armenia.
Before I leave you to discover more about these topics in the following pages, allow me to share a few thoughts on the year 2026. MLU is excellent and has a long and distinguished academic tradition. It is on this foundation that we can and must shape the future responsibly. Freedom, including academic freedom, must be defended again and again. Democracy must be something that all members of society can experience and actively participate in. It cannot be taken for granted that democracy and the rule of law, things we have fought hard to achieve in Germany, are everywhere in the world – even in places where they may have once been. We, too, should not take them for granted. 

MLU is shaping the future: in science and education, as well as socially, culturally and economically. It is a challenging task, but it is meaningful and motivating as well. With this in mind, I warmly invite you to take a look around MLU and help shape the future. We appreciate your loyalty.  

Best wishes,
Claudia Becker
Rector