Jubilation on the part of project leaders and the University Management on hearing that the University of Bremen has once again reached the final round in the German government’s Excellence Initiative. In the last round the University only narrowly missed being awarded the coveted title “University of Excellence”. This time, the concept submitted by the University sailed through the preliminary phase of the second round with flying colors in the third funding line. This is the part of the Excellence Initiative which refers to the future concept of the University as a whole. The University of Bremen gave its concept the title “Ambitioniert und agil”, which translates into “Ambitious and Agile”. On the other hand, though, the news that proposals submitted for three other areas within the University have been unsuccessful was a disappointment. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German Research Society] and the Wissenschaftsrat [Science Council] published the results at a press conference held yesterday.
Clearly elated, University President, Professor Wilfried Müller, stated: “This means that the University of Bremen is the only university in the North of Germany to be on its way to receiving the accolade University of Excellence.” However, and with some disappointment, he went on to say: “At the moment, though, I am at a loss to understand why our applications for a graduate school and two clusters of excellence failed to win through. I know just how much effort our colleagues have poured into these interdisciplinary projects and how successful they are. Nevertheless, our disappointment is somewhat mitigated by our success in the funding line “Future Concepts”, which puts the University of Bremen right in the forefront of the very best universities in Germany.“
Together with HU Berlin, Bochum, TU Dresden, Cologne, Mainz und Tübingen, Bremen is among the seven universities which can now go on to submit full proposals for recognition as “University of Excellence”. The University of Bremen already achieved considerable success in the preceding round of the Excellence Initiative, receiving extra funding for two graduate schools and an excellence cluster. These units automatically go into the final round, seeking continuation of their special Federal funding. The University of Bremen caused quite a stir when it was selected in the first round of the Excellence Initiative and invited together with nine other German universities to submit its overall future concept and apply for recognition as a University of Excellence: being successful is becoming a habit.
This time the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft received 227 applications from 65 universities. The full proposals must be submitted by 1st September 2011. On 15th June 2012 it will be announced which of the proposals have been successful. The new funding phase begins in November 2012.
You can find more information on this topic and the content of the successful project proposal under the University of Bremen’s press release (in German).
