IMES is an interdisciplinary environmental study program covering different faculties, which has been established at the University of Cologne in 2003. The idea of this program is to enhance the handling of environmental problems and research on environmental issues by fostering multidisciplinary education and thinking. 

HITEC is a graduate school for doctoral candidates at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and its partner universities RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universität zu Köln, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, and Bergische Universität Wuppertal.

The Helmholtz School for Data Science in Life, Earth and Energy (HDS-LEE) provides an interdisciplinary environment for educating the next generation of data scientists in close contact to domain-specific knowledge and research. All three domains – life & medical sciences, earth sciences, and energy systems/materials – are characterized by the experimental generation of huge heterogeneously structured data sets, which have to be evaluated in order to obtain a holistic understanding of very complex systems.