Universität Hamburg is northern Germany’s largest and most diverse center of research. The University is known for its outstanding basic research as well as its applied and transfer research projects. Following the expansion of the Von-Melle-Park Campus in the mid-1960s, the university quarter grew towards the Bundesstrasse, where the 22-floor Geomatikum was built in the 1970s. With its several campuses, the University is present across the entire Hamburg metropolitan area. This includes the central Von-Melle-Park campus, the climate and geosciences precinct on the Bundesstrasse campus, the Eppendorf campus dedicated to medical training, the Bahrenfeld campus housing the physics institutes, and the Klein Flottbek campus with the Institute of Plant Science and Microbiology and the Botanical Garden. Further academic institutions at Universität Hamburg include, for example, the Observatory in Bergedorf and the Institute of Wood Science in Lohbrügge.

Universität Hamburg is international and cosmopolitan, qualities integral to being what we call the "gateway to the world of science and scholarship." This openess is inspired by the city of Hamburg itself, as a harbor city positioned both politically and culturally as a "gateway to the world." In all of its scientific and scholarly pursuits, the University upholds the city's long-standing tradition of openness, tolerance, and international cooperation and universality.