Promising research ideas on the way to the Cluster of Excellence
The pre-selection for the new Clusters of Excellence in the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments has been finalised. The panel of experts appointed by the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) announced which initiatives have been authorised to submit a detailed full proposal. This first hurdle on the way to becoming a Cluster of Excellence has also been successfully overcome by three initiatives from the Berlin Excellence Network, whose draft proposals were able to convince the jury.
Die Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin geht mit zwei Vollanträgen in die nächste Runde des Exzellenzwettbewerbs. Die Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin und die Freie Universität Berlin sind als antragstellende Einrichtungen daran beteiligt. Das Vorhaben „ImmunoPreCept“ forscht an den Schnittstellen von Gesundheit und Krankheit, um Erkrankungen früher zu erkennen und präventiv zu behandeln. Bei „INTERACT“ geht es um die Ursachen von Multimorbidität – also mehreren gleichzeitigen Erkrankungen. Die Forschenden fokussieren sich hier auf die gestörte Kommunikation zwischen einzelnen Organen. An diesem Antrag ist auch die Technische Universität Berlin antragstellend beteiligt. Die Freie Universität Berlin ist mit der Antragsskizze „Center for Chiral Electronics“ erfolgreich, die sie gemeinsam mit der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg und der Universität Regensburg eingereicht hat. Das Forschungsziel ist es, Grundlagen für eine energieeffizientere und zugleich ultraschnelle Elektronik zu entwickeln.
The potential new Clusters of Excellence have until 22 August to submit their full proposals to the DFG, which will decide on funding in May 2025. With the Clusters of Excellence, the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments, which has been in place since 2019, promotes top-level research at German universities and strengthens their international competitiveness. Nationwide, 143 new initiatives applied for funding as Clusters of Excellence in the current round of the competition and submitted their draft proposals. 41 are now allowed to enter the decision-making round with full proposals.
Berlin Excellence Network has seven Clusters of Excellence so far
With Matters of Activity. Image Space Material, the HU already has its own Cluster of Excellence and is involved in three other clusters as an applicant: Science of Intelligence (SCIoI), Berlin Mathematics Research Centre MATH+ and NeuroCure - Comprehensive Approaches to Neurological and Psychiatric Disorders. In addition, HU researchers are also involved in the three other existing clusters of the Berlin University Alliance Contestations of the Liberal Script (SCRIPTS), Unifying Systems in Catalysis (UniSysCat) and Temporal Communities: Doing Literature in a Global Perspective. The existing clusters must also submit their applications for continued funding by 22 August. The continuation or new funding of the Clusters of Excellence will begin in January 2026. The seven-year funding phase comprises up to ten million euros per year.