In 2018, the five Saxon universities of applied sciences joined forces in the "Saxony5" project to work even more closely together on knowledge transfer and the joint communication of their research. The basis at the time was the "Innovative University" funding call by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) and a successful application.

Based on the previous collaboration, the five universities decided to submit a new, enhanced project application in 2021 for the period from 2023 to 2027, which was submitted at the beginning of December after intensive coordination with many stakeholders.

On May 5, it was announced that ^Saxony5 was among the applicants selected to receive funding for a further five years. We are very happy about this decision. It guarantees that we will be able to maintain and expand the networks and structures that we have painstakingly built up over the last 4.5 years - especially against the backdrop of the pandemic - for another five years. Our aim will be to continue to operate CELSIUZ as an attractive co-creation lab, to make it available to you and to develop it further. We want to make the research of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences even more visible - to citizens, companies in the region, other research institutions, but also within our own university.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank and congratulate all those who have contributed to the success of the application with their work to date.