Decisions in the Second Round of Competition under the Excellence Strategy

45 renewals of existing projects in receipt of funding and 25 new clusters / Funding to begin on 1 January 2026 for a period of seven years / Annual funding volume of €539 million / Universities of Excellence funding line: ten universities currently in receipt of funding to be evaluated from autumn, 15 additional universities now eligible to apply / Results announced in Bonn

Decisions have been made on future Clusters of Excellence in the second round of competition under the Excellence Strategy – the joint initiative of the federal and state governments to further strengthen top-level research at universities in Germany. Made up of researchers from the international Committee of Experts and the federal and state ministers of science and research, the Excellence Commission met in Bonn on Thursday, 22 May 2025 and selected 70 Clusters of Excellence for funding from a total of 98 funding proposals. This means the maximum number of projects has been approved as set down in the administrative agreement concluded between the federal and state governments. This was widely supported by the research community in light of the need to strengthen the international competitiveness of the German higher education and research system.

Details of the selected clusters, the universities which submitted the proposals and their locations are available at this list:

Clusters of Excellence Funding Line: Full List of Funded Projects (results of the meeting of the Excellence Commission on 22 May 2025) (PDF, 586KB, File does not meet accessibility standards)

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