How can we make the University of Freiburg more resilient, innovative, and fit for the future? This question is at the centre of the Unicorn Fund, a university-wide call for ideas with the potential to transform and improve the University as a system. The most convincing project will be integrated into the University of Freiburg’s proposal to achieve the title of University of Excellence, which will be submitted in November 2025. In the case of success, the winner of the Unicorn Fund would therefore receive funding in this context.
The University invited teams from science and research as well as research management to apply with creative ideas – and the response was huge: Employees from faculties, research institutes, and administration submitted a total of 35 project outlines with bold, practical, and original proposals. ‘I’m impressed by how much passion, curiosity, and far-sightedness is evident in the ideas our colleagues submitted’, says Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein, Rector of the University of Freiburg. ‘We will continue to profit from this wealth of perspectives on our path of overall university development.’
