The more than 200-year-old Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn is an internationally operating, cooperation and focus-oriented research university with a wide range of currently around 200 bachelor's and master's degree programs, some of which are part-time. More than 33,000 people study at the seven faculties of the comprehensive university, of whom approximately 4,400 come from abroad. Among the approximately 6,200 doctoral students are about 1,500 with foreign citizenship. The university has around 7,000 employees, including 636 professors. Together with the University Hospital Bonn with more than 8,500 employees, it is one of the largest employers in the region. More than 70 partner universities worldwide represent the excellent international network.

Since 2019, the university with its six clusters of excellence and the successful overall concept has been a university of excellence. Among other things, this status enables the university to expand its international position and to better recruit scientists. The city of Bonn supports the University of Bonn in its projects through a joint "Memorandum of Understandig", which regulates the basis of cooperation and its development. There is regular exchange at various levels. The business development department cooperates closely with the university, for example in the areas of career counseling, start-up and innovation support, and science communication. To this end, it works closely with the Transfer Center ena-Com, the Career Service, the International Affairs Department and various institutes of the university. The cooperation of ena-Com with the Digital Hub Region Bonn makes the start-up activities centrally located in downtown Bonn even more visible. The University of Bonn is a key player in the Bonn Region Sustainability Hub project.

Founded in 1995, the university has around 9,500 students and about 1,100 employees, including 150 professors. It currently offers 39 bachelor's and master's degree programs in Sankt Augustin, Rheinbach and Hennef. More than half of its approximately 1,300 graduates remain in the region. The awarding of independent doctoral rights to the NRW Doctoral College now also makes it possible for the H-BRS to offer independent doctoral programs. The Center for Science and Technology Transfer ZWT promotes cooperation with companies and organizations and advises on funding programs as well as exploitation aspects. The Bonn Economic Development Agency works closely with the ZWT and the CENTIM (Center for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and SMEs) and supports the Start-up-Manufaktur. This is an initiative of the SUPRA project (Start-up Program Rheinbach Sankt Augustin), which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy as part of the EXIST program. H-BRS also contributes its competencies to the Sustainability Hub Bonn Region.

The Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences is a state-recognized art university with two campuses (in Alfter and Mannheim) and part of the Bonn art scene. The university, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2023, currently has around 2,000 students and over 260 employees (including around 80 professors) and offers 22 full- and part-time degree programs. Contacts with local companies are being expanded, especially in the business faculty, including in the joint project Sustainability Hub Bonn Region.

The RheinAhrCampus Remagen is one of three locations of the Koblenz University of Applied Sciences. The strong practical orientation of the studies and the teaching of interdisciplinary knowledge in the fields of "Mathematics and Technology" as well as "Economics and Social Sciences" prepare the approximately 2,800 students in around 20 study programs for the job market. As a regional innovation and service center, the campus is integrated into the regional health network and the science region and also offers numerous part-time distance learning courses. The business development department works closely with the university in the areas of transfer, regional development, start-up promotion and securing skilled workers.

The caesar research center became the Max Planck Institute for the Neurobiology of Behavior at the beginning of 2022. The institute, which was previously associated with the research community, is thus now a full member of the Max Planck Society.

There have also been changes for the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, which has been merged with the Center for Natural History of the University of Hamburg in the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change and which are now jointly conducting research on biodiversity change across sites.

With the largest EU location of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the science location Bonn gets a top-class addition. ECMWF is a global scientific leader in the field of weather forecasting and climatology. Among other things, it carries out its tasks in the EU Earth observation program "Copernicus" from Bonn.

The six Fraunhofer Institutes with locations in Bonn, Sankt Augustin, Wachtberg and Euskirchen with more than 1,900 employees stand for non-university top-level research in the field of information and communication technologies and form an interface between science and industry. Together with the University of Bonn, RWTH Aachen University and Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences, the Fraunhofer Institute Center Birlinghoven is part of the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology. The Cyber Security course at the University of Bonn is just one example of the close cooperation between the Fraunhofer institutes and the universities. The Bonn Economic Development Agency actively participates in boards of trustees of Fraunhofer FKIE and Fraunhofer SCAI.

Bonn is both the seat of national and international science policy and of Germany's major science funding and intermediary organizations. These include, among others, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) with its first office and the Joint Science Conference (GWK).