The “Deutsche SchülerAkademie” (German Pupils Academy) is the most significant outside‐of‐school residential programme for gifted senior secondary school pupils in Germany. Following its description at the first NATO / UNESCO research workshop an extension of the concept to 7^th to 9^th graders is presented here. Results from two regional academies during a three year pilot phase have shown that the concept for the “seniors” with minor adaptations can successfully be applied to the “juniors”. In cooperation with other organizers of similar programmes the label “Deutsche JuniorAkademien” (German Junior Academies) has been created to promote the idea of high quality residential summer academies all over Germany.