What's UniSysCat all about?

UniSysCat stands for Unifying Systems in Catalysis. We are a Cluster of Excellence - more than 300 researchers from four universities and four research institutes in the Berlin and Potsdam area - working jointly together on current challenges in the highly relevant field of catalysis.

UniSysCat unites biologists, chemists, engineers and physicists with the aim to revolutionize catalysis research.

News

Helmut Schwarz receives the prestigious Wolf Prize for Chemistry for solving fundamental problems in catalysis. We warmly congratulate the former member of our predecessor cluster UniCat.

What are the Berlin Clusters of Excellence actually researching? To find this out, from now on, we monthly invite you to a pub quiz at the fahimi bar in Kreuzberg!

On February 5, the UniSysCat research consortium presented its renewal proposal to the German Research Foundation (DFG), as part of the competitive selection process for continued funding under Germany’s Excellence Strategy.

While the evaluations of the Clusters of Excellence are in full swing, the Berliner Morgenpost sheds light on UniSysCat's pioneering research. The article by Andreas Abel was published on February 1.

Today, the very first episode of the new podcast on the “Future of Chemistry and Society”, produced by Nona Schulte-Römer and UniSysCat postdoc Benjamin Steininger, went online.

The Berliner Morgenpost reports on Berlin's chances of positioning itself at the forefront of the transformation of the chemical industry. The article by Joachim Fahrun was published on January 27.

The third issue of the TU magazine “WIR/VIER” about the work of the Berlin University Alliance focuses on the clusters of excellence. Two articles highlight the research and transfer achievements of UniSysCat.

Four UniSysCat groups jointly elucidated the coupling of the reactivities of two physiologically unrelated enzymes in solution by theory and spectroscopy to achieve hydrogen-driven formate production and the reverse reaction.

Ten episodes of the German podcast "exzellent erlärt" have been published in the last six months. The podcast takes you from the lab to the universe.

UniSysCat researcher Benjamin Steininger in GEO 1/2025: “We don't just have oil in our tanks, we also have it in our minds”. The journal is until mid January on stock at almost every German kiosk or train station.

Video: About UniSysCat

Video: Hydrogenase in action

Energie-Zeitenwende: Video with Youtuber Tom Bötticher

The Synthesizer Podcast about the transformation of chemistry

Consortium

Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2008– 390540038