© dpa
Ten Berlin research projects have reached the final selection round in the competition for funding under the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments.
In addition to seven already funded projects, three further initiatives are now hoping to be included in the coveted funding program, as the Berlin Science Administration announced on Friday. The new projects are based on a cooperation between several universities (Berlin University Alliance). These include Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, Technische Universität and Charité.
Charité CEO Heyo Kroemer was delighted with the good news. "This is an important signal not only for Berlin as a center of science, but also for the competitiveness of university medicine in Germany," Kroemer said. With the so-called Excellence Strategy, the federal and state governments want to strengthen Germany as a science location in the long term and improve its international competitiveness. Clusters of Excellence" provide project-related funding for certain fields of research that are considered internationally competitive. Clusters of Excellence are each funded by the federal government and the respective federal state to the tune of three to ten million euros per year; according to the German Research Foundation, the funding period is seven years. A decision will be made in May 2025 as to which of the new initiatives and existing projects will be funded from January 1, 2026. According to the Berlin Science Administration, 100 applications are still in the running across Germany.