If you enter universities in your route planner, you will be given the locations Aachen, Bielefeld, Bochum, Bonn, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Essen, Hagen, Cologne, Münster, Paderborn, Siegen, Wuppertal, which just about takes in almost the whole of the state. Nowhere in Europe are there more universities and research institutes than in NRW. Be it bio- or genetic technology, environmental research or social politics – top level research is being carried on all over the place.