With eleven applicants for a maximum of five available places, disappointment was almost inevitable for the universities or university associations that were not included in the Excellence Strategy. It was little consolation for the universities in Lower Saxony that their Science Minister Falko Mohrs (SPD), who is also deputy chairman of the Joint Conference of Science Ministers, assured that valuable strategies, cooperation and development prospects would remain even where excellence status was not achieved with additional funding.
The minister did not say whether the country would provide additional funds to at least partially realize the plans. The Hannover Medical School, the University of Hannover, and the Northwest Alliance (University of Bremen and University of Oldenburg) received nothing.
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Two universities of excellence in the East
The Central Hesse association of the universities of Giessen and Marburg as well as the universities in Kiel and Würzburg were also unsuccessful. “You can't only find competition good if you win,” said Bavaria's Science Minister Markus Blume (CSU), who would have particularly liked to see Würzburg as a university of excellence. Both locations of excellence can still be found in Munich. Both the TU and the Ludwig Maximilians University were able to defend their excellence status.
The fact that in the end two associations, the Ruhr Innovation Lab (University of Bochum and TU Dortmund) and the Rhine-Main universities (TU Darmstadt, University of Frankfurt and University of Mainz), were able to attract the three necessary clusters of excellence for university associations and achieve excellence status, broadens the top, but also means that the funding per location will be reduced. The University of Jena has been successful as a new individual university in the Excellence Strategy. After the TU Dresden, it is the second university of excellence in the East. The universities in Freiburg and Cologne are taking part again. Freiburg was part of it from 2007 to 2012, Cologne from 2012 to 2019.
Baden-Württemberg has once again managed to have four universities of excellence, three in Baden (KIT Karlsruhe, Heidelberg and Freiburg) and one in Swabia (Tübingen). For the country, this not only results in reputation but also huge costs. 75 percent of the funds are borne by the federal government and 25 percent by the respective host states. Individual applicants can expect a maximum of up to 15 million euros per year, university groups with 15 to 28 million euros per year. The total amount of 208 million euros must be distributed among 15 associations and individual universities. This means that the funding amounts applied for by all 15 excellence locations will be reduced by around 21 percent. For some scientific projects, this means replanning and limiting research goals.
Even in this last round of the Excellence Strategy, those responsible from politics and science organizations (Science Council and German Research Foundation/DFG) never tired of emphasizing that this was a purely science-led process. In general, there was an apologetic tone overall, which rather suggests that the Excellence Strategy will not be continued in its current form. In any case, an evaluation that analyzes the advantages and disadvantages is planned. The question will then arise as to whether further widening of the tip makes sense.
The so-called Excellence Commission with 39 scientists from home and abroad had already confirmed ten existing locations of excellence in March and extended their term until 2033. They are the TU Munich, the LMU Munich, the universities in Tübingen, Heidelberg and the KIT in Karlsruhe, the TU Dresden, the Association of Berlin Universities, the University of Bonn, the RWTH Aachen and the University of Hamburg. Since Tuesday, the Excellence Commission had been poring over the selection of the five new ones and presented the politicians who joined on Thursday evening with a list of green and red ratings. It was also adopted without changes.
Neither regional proportionality nor financial impact played a role in the scientific assessment, but rather a clear and substantial scientific vision that is internationally competitive, assured the chairman of the Science Council, Wolfgang Wick. While the DFG is responsible for selecting the clusters (research associations), the Science Council takes on this role for selecting the locations of excellence.
For universities, the application process in the Excellence Strategy involves years of preparation. Since the presentation in English can be crucial during on-site visits by the Excellence Commission, it is meticulously rehearsed and practiced beforehand. Enormous energy flows into the competition. Given the lack of funding, the fact that the losers also sharpened their strategic orientation is probably only a moderate result.
