  The understanding of the phase structure and the fundamental properties of
QCD matter from its microscopic description requires appropriate
first-principle approaches. Here I review the progress towards a quantitative
first-principle continuum approach within the framework of the Functional
Renormalization group established by the fQCD collaboration. I focus on recent
quantitative results for quenched QCD and Yang-Mills theory in the vacuum
before addressing the calculation of dynamical quantities such as spectral
functions and transport coefficients in this framework.
