Excellence Initiative

The third funding line, "Institutional Strategies to promote top-level university research", aims to strengthen universities as institutions so that they can compete at international top level.

Universities eligible for such funding develop a long-term Institutional Strategy for top-level research and the promotion of young researchers. The Institutional Strategy needs to respond to the current position and requirements of the university and look at the university as a whole.

The third funding line enhances the diversity of organisation of top-level research and of German universities. It strengthens the strategic skills and the autonomy of universities and improves the performance of the research system as a whole.

In 2005, 2006 and 2010 the Institutional Strategies funding line was announced together with the two other funding lines, Graduate Schools and Clusters of Excellence. The submission of Proposals involves two stages: At the first stage, all universities are invited to submit draft proposals. At the second stage, universities selected by the Joint Commission are asked to submit full proposals.

The selection of Institutional Strategies is guided by four basic principles: 

_ Excellence: highest standard of scientific quality and institutional strategy,

_ Competition: comparative assessment of the universities,

_ Peer-review procedure: peers assess applications, recommend funding and are involved in the eventual funding decision,

_ Internationality: on-site appraisal by an international expert commission applying international standards.

The assessment of Institutional Strategies takes into account the current research strength of the university as well as the submitted proposal. It is assessed whether

_ the university conducts excellent research in different significant scientific and academic fields and can demonstrate an increase in quality or consistently high quality (excellent research to be demonstrated, particularly, by success in terms of the first and second funding lines);

_ the Institutional Strategy takes into account the strengths and weaknesses of the respective university and justifies the expectation that the university will become more competitive internationally in the future.

Please see here for further information regarding the criteria for the Institutional Strategies, 3rd funding line (2nd phase).