The aim of the Excellence Initiative launched by the Federal Government and the Federal States is to strengthen the international competitiveness of German universities. In 2012, the University of Bremen received the accolade “University of Excellence” in recognition of its institutional strategy titled “Ambitious and Agile”. The concept encompassed nine new strategic measures designed to bring about a sustainable step change. One of these is the University’s so-called Development Fund.
Interim strengthening
Via its Development Fund, the University of Bremen was able to significantly strengthen personnel resources in four selected research areas. The idea is to give especially dynamic areas additional personnel resources to boost their development and contribution towards building up the University’s profile. Two of the four areas given such support have received a positive evaluation with the possibility to anchor the additionally created positions in the University’s Academic Development Plan in the long term after 2017. Prerequisite is that the University of Bremen has become a leading national location in the respective research field. The decision as to whether this is actually the case is made in a multi-stage evaluation procedure under the participation of the researchers themselves, their respective Deans of Faculty as well as external international experts and the Rectorate.
Initial results already made known
The first evaluation in the frame of the Development Fund has already been completed. Under due consideration of the evaluation report and with a view to the University’s general development, the Rectorate was unable to confirm that the requirements pertaining to the measure have been fulfilled. There had neither been any significant boost to development nor had the measure’s significance for the University’s profile been strengthened. “We naturally regret having to come to this conclusion. We had hoped that reinforcing the area by two professorships would have left a significant mark on Eastern European research. Unfortunately, this has not materialized”, concludes the President of the University of Bremen, Professor Bernd-Scholz-Reiter. On the basis of this evaluation, the Rectorate decided unanimously not to anchor the professorships in its Academic Development Plan when the first five-year period expires.
You can find more information on Measure M6 and the profile of the University of Bremen under http://www.uni-bremen.de/fileadmin/user_upload/universitaet/Exzellenzinitiative/Antrag_ExIni/Universitaet_Bremen_-_Zukunftskonzept_oA.pdf
