Excellence Strategy: Berlin Universities apply together

Letter of Intent for Universities of Excellence funding line submitted along with nine full-scale applications for research clusters within the German government's new competition. No 034/2018 from Feb 21, 2018 Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin are entering the Excellence Strategy competition together. On February 21, 2018, the three universities submitted their letter of intent to the German Council of Science and Humanities in Cologne. Taking note of the unique academic environment and great variety of disciplines in Berlin, they emphasize the vibrant and diverse culture of cooperation. In the Clusters of Excellence funding line, researchers from the named institutions submitted a total of nine full proposals, as invited by the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) in September 2017. The Berlin institutions see the letter of intent as the logical implementation of the cooperation for this competition that they entered into in the summer of 2016. The variety of academic disciplines in the humanities, natural and social sciences, life sciences, and engineering along with the innovative strength in Berlin can be utilized to promote cutting-edge research and make it more visible internationally.