The first decisions have been made regarding the Excellence Strategy of the German Federal and State Governments:

TU Dresden was successful with six out of eight submitted proposals.

On September 27 and 28, 2017, the committee of international experts at the German Research Foundation (DFG) in Bonn discussed the draft proposals submitted in the Cluster of Excellence funding line, and chose which of the 195 projects will be invited to submit their application for the final round of the competition.

Applications for the six selected projects must be submitted to the DFG by February 21, 2018.

In one year from now, on September 27, 2018, the Excellence Committee will reach a final decision on the funding of Clusters of Excellence. With at least two Clusters of Excellence, TU Dresden can apply for the funding line “Exzellenzuniversität” (University of Excellence, successor of the “Institutional Strategy”). This application must be made by December 10, 2018.

 TUD press release; September 29, 2017:
"TU Dresden is invited to submit six full applications for Clusters of Excellence in the next round of the Excellence Competition"

Link to DFG: Gesamtliste der zur Antragstellung aufgeforderten Projekte