Excellence in Natural and Life Sciences
With human and veterinary medicine, agricultural and nutritional sciences, biology and chemistry, as well as psychology and sports science, the JLU offers an interdisciplinary canon of subjects in the natural and life sciences that is unique for Germany and thereby provides an eminent scientific potential for solving urgent future problems.  The highly successful life science research, currently established in four special research areas and six research groups from the German Research Society as well as a number of internationally networked research projects, is systematically supported via a newly structured, research-oriented graduate education in the Giessen Graduate School for Life Sciences (GGL).  The formation of scientific centers such as the Interdisciplinary Research Center for Biosystems, Land Use, and Nutrition (IFZ Giessen), the Center for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU), and the Biomedical Research Center currently under construction at Seltersberg further supports this process in lasting ways.

Via the extensive introduction of modern, career-oriented Bachelor studies and research-oriented Master studies, the JLU was already able to implement the Bologna process in the natural and life sciences.  Highly efficient, future-oriented study programs such as the new 'Materials Science' or the international Master program 'Agrobiotechnology' characterize the new picture of the JLU: a prospering, modern university that poses decisive scientific and societal questions about the future on an international level.  This quality-driven renewal strategy was recently validated and simultaneously strengthened for the long term though the outstanding successes of the JLU in the federal Excellence Initiative.  The establishment of the Excellence Cluster Cardiopulmonary System (ECCPS) attests to the research excellence of Giessen's life sciences and thereby places them on a peak level internationally. 

Geography, Mathematics, and Physics, along with a very successful connection to the society for heavy ion research (GSI Darmstadt) and a transregional special research area (SFB-Transregio 16 - Electromagnetic Stimulation of Subnuclear Systems) complete the natural and life science offers of the JLU.

Excellence in the Arts and Humanities
The strength of the university lies especially in the good balance between problem-oriented basic research in the natural sciences and its internationally exemplary profile in the humanities. Based on a long-term, successful special research area (SFB 434 Memory Cultures) and an international doctoral program Literary and Cultural Studies (IPP) as well as the Giessen Graduate School for Culture Studies (GGK), the successful graduate education in Giessen's humanities first led to the founding of the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC) within the context of the Excellence Initiative, through which the successful concept of the University of Giessen was made visible and awarded both nationally and internationally. The English language international and interdisciplinary Master program 'Transition Management,' the only one of its kind in Europe, highlights this improvement. The formation of scientific centers such as the Giessen Center for Eastern Europe (GiZo) and the Center for Media and Interactivity (ZMI) also supports the process of profile improvement in these areas in lasting ways.

The unique offer of the JLU in the fields of law and business completes the picture. Both subjects support and integrate with the natural and life sciences as well as the arts and humanities, and they play an important role in the transdisciplinary strategy of the JLU.

The JLU has a special responsibility for the quality of teacher education in Hessen. The broad and interesting offer of this education for all teaching positions is significantly characterized by the outlined, excellent profile.

The future development of the JLU is dynamically promoted in a broad university-wide discussion process. Within the context of its Future Concept 2012, the university works on further orienting its research in a transdisciplinary way, expanding the competitive research focal points, improving the quality of teaching in the Bachelor and Master studies, and focusing on a research-oriented graduate education. Significant characteristics of this process include quality-driven guidance in hiring personnel and acquiring equipment and space; a permanent evaluation of strengths and weaknesses in research and education operations; a clear formation of priorities when supporting excellent research and teaching; and a resolute, competitive acquisition of top researchers, scientists, and highly motivated students worldwide.

In this exemplary manner, the University of Giessen, with its 400-year, successful, scientific tradition and with the help of its namesake Justus von Liebig, one of the most active chemists of all time, and the Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, has proved beyond doubt to be better suited to answering future problems than ever before.