Major award for Berlin: The Berlin University Alliance has won funding as a group in the Universities of Excellence funding line of the German federal and state governments’ Excellence Strategy. The German Council of Science and Humanities announced the decision on July 19, 2019, in Bonn. The four Berlin partners – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – submitted a joint proposal entitled Crossing Boundaries toward an Integrated Research Environment and in a highly competitive process were able to convince the reviewers of its feasibility.

A total of 17 universities and two university consortia had applied for the special grants, which include funding and enhanced reputation and 11 of these coveted grants were awarded.

The Berlin alliance, consisting of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, won one of them, and is the first and only consortium with excellence status in Germany.

Following the funding approval for seven Clusters of Excellence – 32 ECN PIs participate in five of them – in the first funding line in September 2018 this is the second major success for Berlin in the German Excellence Strategy.

Source: https://www.berlin-university-alliance.de/news/items/20190719-decision-excellence-strategy.html