We can breathe easily again, having taken one step farther towards achieving our goal: the University of Bremen has submitted its applications for the next round of the Excellence Initiative launched by the German Government and the federal states. With its application entitled “Ambitious and Agile”, our University was the only one in the northwestern region to pass through the preliminary rounds. We were subsequently invited to submit a full application in the funding line “Institutional Strategy”, which details proposals for the development of the University as a whole.
The University of Bremen is therefore among the small group of only seven in all Germany competing as “newcomers” for the title “University of Excellence”. In addition to these are the already crowned nine Universities of Excellence, who are applying for a prolongation of this coveted status. Of the 16 candidates, just twelve will eventually receive the accolade.
The final decision will be announced on 15th June 2012, a Friday, when allocations for funding in the second phase beginning in November 2012 will be made known. As in the first phase, financing will then be granted for a period of five years in the three funding lines: Graduate Schools, Excellence Clusters, and Institutional Strategies. The successful graduate schools will receive EUR 3 million and the excellence clusters up to EUR 8 million per year. There is no predetermined upper limit for the Institutional Strategies; the University of Bremen has applied for EUR 10 million per year to fund its concept. All in all, a total of EUR 2.724 has been earmarked for the second phase of the Excellence Initiative.
In addition to the full application for the unofficial “title” University of Excellence, the University of Bremen has also submitted several prolongation proposals in two other funding lines where we were already successful in 2006. Five years ago the University was awarded funding for two graduate schools in the areas of Marine Sciences and the Social Sciences, as well as for an excellence cluster in the Marine Sciences. These excellent Bremen institutions are applying for continued funding, whereby the graduate school in the area of Marine Sciences is to be integrated in the excellence cluster. The respective institutions have therefore submitted their own proposals for prolongation of their funding over another five years.
Further information can be obtained from: Prof. Dr. Rolf Drechsler, Vice Rector for Research and Young Academics, phone: 0421/218- 60021, e-mail: drechslerprotect me ?!uni-bremenprotect me ?!.de
