A new selection round has been started in Germany’s Excellence Initiative. The Excellence Initiative funds “future concepts” (for whole universities), “clusters of excellence” (supporting thematically-focused research) and “graduate schools”. The present round was for new “excellence clusters”.

A panel of independent experts was tasked to select 11 project applicants from among 24 applications received. The 11 finalists must now submit full-blown proposals before the end of September 2011. In February 2012, five from among these 11 will ultimately be chosen.  Most of the finalists are from energy-related fields.

Excellence clusters are consortia of companies, research centres and other organisations which pool their research and development resources in a chosen field. Each cluster receives funds amounting to EUR 80 million over a period of five years. Half of the funds are provided by the private sector.

Federal Ministry of Education and Research