The Committee of Experts adopted the schedule(Download) for the second competition phase of the Excellence Strategy at its meeting on 29 to 30 November 2021.

Clusters of Excellence Funding Line:

The funding decision for the next round of Clusters of Excellence was made on 22 May 2025. 70 new Clusters of Excellence will be funded from 1 January 2026 onwards.

Universities of Excellence Funding Line:

The call for proposals for the second competition phase was issued on 28 March 2024. Based on the funding decisions for the 70 Clusters of Excellence made on 22 May 2025, new proposals must be submitted by mid-November of that year. On-site visits related to these proposals will take place between April and June 2026, and on 2 October 2026 the Excellence Commission will decide on potential new admissions to the funding line. Funding will begin on 1 January 2027.

Regarding those Universities of Excellence and the University Consortium of Excellence that still meet the formal requirements for continued funding following the Cluster of Excellence decisions, evaluation will begin with the submission of self-reports on 1 August 2025. On-site visits will be conducted between late September and December 2025. In March 2026, the Committee of Experts will assess the results of the individual evaluations and present its recommendation to the Excellence Commission.

See the website of the German Science and Humanities Council(externer Link) (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) for details.

Decisions on draft proposals and full proposals in the Excellence Strategy are made by the Committee of Experts and the Excellence Commission, respectively.

The Committee of Experts(externer Link) consists of 39 members with proven research track records who represent the entire range of academic disciplines. In addition, they have extensive experience in international settings, in university management, in teaching or in the private sector.

The Chair of the German Council of Science and Humanities and the President of the DFG are non-voting members of the committee and preside over it.

The tasks of the Committee of Experts include defining the funding criteria, evaluating the draft and full proposals on the basis of peer reviews, making funding recommendations to the Excellence Commission, deciding on the draft proposals that qualify for submission of a full proposal, and assessing the results of the evaluation of the Universities of Excellence.

The Excellence Commission consists of the Committee of Experts and the government ministers responsible for research at the federal and state levels. The Excellence Commission decides on the funding of Clusters of Excellence and Universities of Excellence on the basis of the recommendations made by the Committee of Experts..

To the Website(externer Link) of the Joint Science Conference on the Excellence Strategy (in German only).

First competition phase

On 27 and 28 September 2017, the Committee of Experts for the Excellence Strategy made the first funding decisions under the Clusters of Excellence funding line and selected 88 draft proposals(Download) to proceed to the proposal submission stage. These were chosen from a total of 195 draft proposals submitted to the DFG by 63 universities and reviewed by internationally composed panels according to scientific quality criteria.

By 21 February 2018, 41 universities had submitted 88 proposals to the DFG under the Clusters of Excellence funding line. Of these, 26 proposals were submitted by multiple universities, including three joint proposals involving three universities each. Nearly half of the submitted projects built directly on Clusters of Excellence or Graduate Schools that had previously received funding under the previous Excellence Initiative of the federal and state governments. Those Clusters of Excellence and Graduate Schools that were funded under the Excellence Initiative but did not continue into the Excellence Strategy received completion funding for the period up until the end of October 2019.

The funding decisions for the Clusters of Excellence under the Excellence Strategy were announced on 27 September 2018. The Excellence Commission – composed of the international Committee of Experts and the science ministers of the federal and state governments – selected 57 Clusters of Excellence(Download) from the 88 submitted proposals. These Clusters were granted funding for seven years.

By 21 February 2018, the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) had received 26 declarations of intent to submit proposals under the Universities of Excellence funding line. The decisions on the Clusters of Excellence made in September 2018 resulted in 19 concepts being approved for the submission of a proposal under the Universities of Excellence funding line. 19 proposals had been submitted by 10 December 2018 – 17 by individual universities and two joint proposals by university consortia. The Excellence Commission announced its funding decision on 19 July 2019, approving 10 Universities of Excellence and one University Consortium of Excellence(externer Link).

To the interactive map(externer Link) showing the funded Clusters, Universities of Excellence, and the University Consortium of Excellence.

Additional facts and figures are to be found in various DFG publications, including circulars, press releases and reports.

Second competition phase

The second competition phase began with the call for EXC draft proposals issued on 15 December 2022. Declarations of intent to submit drafts for new Clusters of Excellence were requested by 1 February 2023. The DFG had received 143 drafts for new proposals by the submission deadline of 31 May 2023. These were reviewed between late August and mid-November 2023. The decision on which drafts would proceed to the proposal stage was made on 1 February 2024: applicants were invited to submit proposals in the case of 41 drafts. None of the renewal proposals went through the draft phase.

Prior to the proposal phase, we requested initial declarations of intent for renewal proposals and updates to declarations of intent for new proposals: the aim here was to integrate any changes that had been introduced to the review process in the interim period. The deadlines here were 29 January 2024 for renewal proposals and 15 April 2024 for new proposals. A total of 98 EXC proposals (from 41 institutions, including 57 renewals) were submitted by 22 August 2024. The proposals were reviewed between early October 2024 and mid-February 2025. 

The funding decisions for the future Clusters of Excellence were made in a press release(interner Link) on 22 May 2025.

The DFG Infobrief "From Zero to Full Capacity? Personnel Expansion in Clusters of Excellence"(externer Link) summarises the socio-demographic data of the participating researchers collected as part of the DFG's annual monitoring and provides an overall view of the composition of the Clusters of Excellence according to career stage, gender, subject area as well as the internationality of the participating researchers.

The report “Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder – Statistische Übersichten zu den Förderentscheidungen zu Exzellenzclustern (September 2018)”(Download) (Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments – Statistical Overview of Funding Decisions on Clusters of Excellence) describes the draft and full proposal phase up to and including the funding decisions in the first competition round for the funding of new Clusters of Excellence. In addition to presenting key figures on the distribution of projects by region and discipline, the report examines topics such as the interdisciplinary nature of the Clusters and the composition of the review panels.

The infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences conducted an online survey of reviewers involved in the Excellence Strategy on behalf of the DFG to evaluate the programme’s review process. Two-thirds of reviewers responded to the survey, the results of which are presented in the report(Download) (in German only).

On 29 and 30 April 2021, the DFG Head Office invited members of the Clusters of Excellence from the first funding round, representatives of the universities, as well as members of the Committee of Experts and the Joint Science Conference to a joint discussion forum on the framework conditions for excellent research in Germany. The event offered the opportunity to exchange different perspectives on the funding programme, from the proposal process to the day-to-day work of the Clusters. The article(interner Link) (in German only) provides further insights.

The following contact persons are available at the head office of the DFG:

For general programme information: Dr. Christine Petry(externer Link)

Contact persons for individual Clusters of Excellence and for administrative matters: Excellence Strategy and Research Impulses(interner Link)

Use of Funds for

• Nordrhein-Westfalen: Janin Winkel(externer Link)
• Brandenburg, Bremen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schleswig-Holstein, Thüringen, Hamburg: Stephan Nouera(externer Link)
• Bayern, Hessen: Berthold Hühnerbach(externer Link)
• Baden-Württemberg, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland, Sachsen, Sachsen-Anhalt: Thomas Lüdtke-Kenn(externer Link)
• Berlin, Niedersachsen: Cornelia Niebus(externer Link)

The following contact persons are available at the head office of the German Council of Science and Humanities:

For general programme information and for the Universities of Excellence funding line: Dr. Inka Spang-Grau(externer Link)

• Website on the Excellence Strategy(externer Link)
• Video: Information for Reviewers – Proposal Phase (externer Link)
• Video: Information for Reviewers – Draft Proposal Phase(externer Link)
• Slides from the DFG’s Orientation Event Regarding the Start of the Second Competition Phase for Clusters of Excellence(Download) (in German only)
• Information Letters and Press Releases(interner Link)
• Excellence Initiative (2005-2017/2019)(interner Link)
• Call for Proposals in the Universities of Excellence Funding Line (WR) (in German only)(externer Link)
• Information on the Excellence Strategy from the German Council of Science and Humanities(externer Link)
• Call for Proposals under the Clusters of Excellence Funding Line(interner Link)
• Information on the Excellence Strategy from the Joint Science Conference (GWK) (in German only)(externer Link)
• Administrative Agreement from 4 November 2022 (in German only)(externer Link)
• Administrative Agreement from 16 June 2016 (in German only)(externer Link)