Forschungszentrum Jülich

Ancient grain makes a comeback

Buckwheat was once a popular food staple in Germany before it nearly vanished from memory. Now it’s making a comeback – on dining tables and hopefully soon in our fields. But this resilient plant has even more potential.

Knowledge. Creation.

Grasping the present. Shaping the future. We research to revolutionize information processing, to transform the energy sector, and to develop a biobased circular economy. Across disciplines, creatively, and successfully.

7,571

employees

26

ERC Grants

2,390

publications

NEWS

Youth science competition "Jugend forscht"

Young talents present their ideas in Jülich

On Friday, 27 February 2026, Forschungszentrum Jülich will once again become a meeting place for young researchers. At the 26th regional competition of “Jugend forscht” and “Jugend forscht junior” – Germany’s youth science competition – school students from Jülich, the Aachen region, Düren and the surrounding area will present their research projects on campus.

Contributing to Policy and Society

Anna Mechler Appointed to ESYS Initiative

Prof. Anna Mechler from the Institute of Energy Technologies at Forschungszentrum Jülich has been invited to become a member of the ESYS initiative. ESYS is a joint initiative of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech), the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, and the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities.

Awarded

Dr Eva Pfannerstill elected to the Young Academy | Mainz

Atmospheric chemist Dr Eva Pfannerstill has been elected to the Young Academy | Mainz. The four-year membership awarded by the Academy of Sciences and Literature | Mainz recognises outstanding scientific achievement at an early career stage and provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries.

Our 3 strategic research priorities

Information

The priority of information combines Jülich research in three areas: simulation and data science in high-performance-computing (HPC), brain research, and research on bio- and nanoelectronic information technologies of the future. Quantum technologies are another priority at Jülich.

Energy

Jülich energy research concentrates on an energy system based on renewable energy. Scientists research technologies on all scales – from the atomic level right up to industrial innovations – covering the entire value chain from basic to applied research.

Bioeconomy

The sustainable bioeconomy is a biobased circular economy that does away with fossil resources and utilizes renewable resources instead. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich are developing new value creation processes.

Helmholtz Research Fields

As a founding member of the Helmholtz Association, we are part of the largest German research organization and contribute our top-class expertise to four of the six Helmholtz Research Fields: Energy, Matter, Information, and Earth & Environment.

At Jülich, we conduct research in the fields of digital transformation, climate protection, the energy transition, and the sustainable circular economy. Our research strengthens the technological and digital sovereignty of our country. It is important to me to use the potential that arises from scientific findings and innovations for practical application.
Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, Chair of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich

Topics

JUPITER

JUPITER at Forschungszentrum Jülich is the first European supercomputer in the exascale class. JUPITER is the first system in Europe with a computing power of more than one quintillion floating-point operations per second

AI

AI is already revolutionizing many areas of life. With our infrastructure and expertise, we are working towards fully and safely exploiting the potential of this technology in the future.

Quantum technologies

Quantum computers are changing computing in a fascinating way. At Jülich, we are testing systems and prototypes that users from all over Europe can utilize for their development work.

JUNIQ

The ‘Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing’, or JUNIQ for short, is the world's first quantum computing infrastructure to offer users from science and industry access to a variety of quantum systems at different stages of development.

Sustainability

Our findings make an important contribution to achieving global sustainability goals. Our research is also sustainable and we use resources responsibly.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is set to become a mainstay of the energy transition. But sustainable and marketable technologies are needed first. We are testing possible solutions.

Neuromorphic Computing

Computers modeled on the human brain, so-called neuromorphic systems, are much more economical than conventional computers.

Atmosphere and Climate

Often invisible to the human eye, they influence the global climate: chemical and physical processes in the atmosphere. We are tracking down these processes.

effzett - Forschungszentrum Jülich's magazine

Can a person’s individual traits be determined from their brain? For a long time, this was unclear, partly because there were no suitable methods of investigation. Artificial intelligence and big data are now opening up new possibilities and have heralded a change of perspective in brain research.