195 Draft Proposals for Clusters of Excellence

By April 3, 2017, the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Bonn had received a total of 195 draft proposals for Clusters of Excellence. TU Dresden is in the running with eight of the 14 Saxon draft proposals for Clusters of Excellence.

63 universities in total from all 16 federal states are participating in the preliminary round with one or more draft proposals. Of the 195 proposals, 47 were submitted by a number of university consortia, including six drafts from one consortium of three universities. Around two-thirds of the drafts anticipate the participation of non-university partners.

The majority of concepts are designed to be multidisciplinary. 27 per cent of the drafts have their thematic focus on the natural sciences, 25 per cent on the humanities and social sciences; 24 per cent of the projects are mainly attributable to engineering sciences and, similarly, 24 per cent to life sciences.

On September 28, 2017, the Committee of Experts, which is composed of 39 scientists, will decide which drafts to include in the final selection as proposals to be further elaborated. A decision on these will then be made in September 2018.

University Allowance Planned for Clusters of Excellence

Universities will now be able to apply for an additional university allowance of one million euro annually when they submit a proposal to receive funding for a Cluster of Excellence. The Committee of Experts for the Excellence Strategy agreed this at a meeting in Bonn in early April 2017.
If several Clusters of Excellence are established at a university, the university allowance will be one million euro per year for the first Cluster of Excellence, 750,000 euro for the second and 500,000 euro for each additional Cluster of Excellence.

New Information on “Universities of Excellence” Funding Lines

Following the decision on Clusters of Excellence, universities with at least two Clusters of Excellence and consortia with at least three can submit an application in the Universities of Excellence funding line.
Universities intending to apply in the funding line must submit a letter of intent by February 21, 2018. The applications must be submitted by December 10, 2018, and the final decisions on funding will then be taken on July 19, 2019.
(In case of this funding, there is no university allowance).