High-quality teaching and intensive one-on-one supervision of students; freedom in designing your own degree course and developing an individual study profile thanks to a large range of elective modules; regular teaching evaluations ensure the teaching quality and effectiveness remain high; relevance to professional practice and early inclusion of research content in the course; close relevance to research and professional practice thanks to a high proportion of lab practicals and labs with state-of-the-art equipment; computer room for students with modern hardware and up-to-date software.

Intensive, long-term exchange with academics from abroad through Mercator professorships (currently two), a Humboldt research prize holder and five Humboldt scholarship holders as well as many foreign scholarship holders.

The institute's numerous research projects mean it has excellent technical equipment, which is also used in teaching. Approx. EUR 4 m in third-party funding has been acquired for research equipment in recent years; selected equipment: femtosecond laser, pulse laser deposition system, field emission scanning electron microscope with focused ion beam, atomic force microscope, transmission electron microscope, confocal laser scanning microscope, confocal Raman microscope, high-performance centrifuge, nano mill, nanoindentation, computer-based visualisation.

Participation of the institute in three Collaborative Research Centres (CRC 1278 PolyTarget, CRC 1375 NOA, TRR 234 CataLight) and two graduate schools. Numerous collaborative projects involving national and international partners from science and industry. Close cooperation with non-university institutions in Jena, such as the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF).

The university’s Research and Transfer Service Centre supports founders of start-ups with comprehensive services in all phases, as well as the transfer of research from idea stage through to successful market launch. Interested parties can discuss ideas, expand their start-up skills and drive the implementation of their ideas. Assistance is available for the entire start-up process, from the first idea to the development of a viable business model through to the founding of a company.