The Free University, Humboldt University, Technical University and the Charité are delighted with their success. (archive picture)
© dpa
Five Berlin research projects can plan for the next seven years with considerable additional funding.
This involves the so-called excellence strategy. Projects at 43 universities in 13 federal states across Germany have been selected for extra funding, as announced by the Joint Science Conference of the Federal Government and the federal states and Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) in Bonn.
Of ten projects submitted from Berlin, five were successful with their applications, as announced by the Senate Department for Science. Science Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD) emphasized that with this decision, Berlin is and will remain a location for cutting-edge research, where the outstanding universities have international appeal. She was delighted with the success of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin and Charité-Universitätsmedizin.
The projects range from mathematics, chronic diseases and artificial intelligence to the political topic of "Challenges to the liberal order". The research projects will each receive around seven million euros a year for seven years from January 2026. The Berlin Clusters of Excellence are called NeuroCure, MATH+ and SCRIPTS, for example. The Cluster of Excellence ImmunoPreCept at Charité with the participation of Freie Universität Berlin and the Cluster of Excellence in Physics, Center for Chiral Electronics, supported by Freie Universität Berlin with partners from Halle and Regensburg, have been newly established. The excellence competitions were launched a few years ago, among other things to polish up the international reputation and image of German universities.