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.