Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments
Statistical Overview of Funding Decisions on Clusters of Excellence and survey of the reviewers
The report “Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder – Statistische Übersichten zu den Förderentscheidungen zu Exzellenzclustern (September 2018)” (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 the award stage in the first competitive round for the funding of new Clusters of Excellence. In addition to presenting key figures on the distribution of projects by region and discipline, it examines topics such as the interdisciplinary nature of the Clusters and the composition of the review groups.
During the proposal phase for the Excellence Strategy in 2018, a total of 88 establishment proposals were reviewed in 32 meetings by 385 reviewers from 31 countries. On the basis of these reviews, the Excellence Commission decided in September 2018 to award funding to 57 Clusters of Excellence. The infas Institute for Applied Social Sciences conducted an online survey of the reviewers 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 this report.