Jugend forscht
Foundation in a new design
A Long-Standing Partnership
Since 2011, sitegeist has been designing, crafting, and developing together with the Jugend forscht e. V. Foundation—for Germany’s next generation of scientists. Following the initial relaunch, the mobile website was launched a year later.
Over the years, many large and small projects have emerged from this close collaboration. sitegeist has provided comprehensive support for press and public relations, especially in digital communication—so crucial for a young audience.
Jugend forscht is Germany’s best-known competition for young scientists. For over 50 years, it has inspired young people to explore STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), communicated scientific knowledge in innovative ways, discovered talent, and provided long-term support. Each year, over 110 regional competitions take place across the country, with more than 12,000 participants.
The foundation’s mission is to raise awareness of the importance of supporting young talent, promote widespread engagement, establish creative, research-driven learning as a fundamental principle, and contribute meaningfully to education policy.
The unique Jugend forscht network spans the entire country and brings together schools, business, science, politics, and media.
New Video Project Database
Due to the pandemic and the resulting cancellation of in-person events and project presentations, the need for digital alternatives grew rapidly. In response, a video project database was developed. Participants were guided through an upload process to submit short videos (max. 3 minutes) about their projects.
Once reviewed, the videos were automatically uploaded to Vimeo and became accessible directly on the Jugend forscht website — filterable and searchable. In 2023, the competition entered its third year with video uploads, and the technical and content quality of the submissions continues to impress.
New Virtual Exhibition
Technically, project-related data for Jugend forscht is stored in various database tables across multiple servers. In 2021, we launched a project to create a virtual exhibition by aggregating all of this data and enriching it with available images and videos.
The result: a longpage-style digital showcase of all federal competition projects, neatly grouped by scientific field—open to public browsing.
Highlights
- Concept, design, and development of jugend-forscht.de based on TYPO3
- Stage slider for featured content
- Extensive project database
- Custom JavaScript network animation
- Event calendar
- Newsletter integration
- Frontend login area for the Alumni Forum
- Automated email info service
- Export function for ordering materials
The promotion of talent is becoming a central guiding principle for our society.
