Excellence Strategy
A CLEAR VISION FOR A GLOBALLY LEADING HUB OF CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH
As part of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments, the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) submitted a joint proposal to be recognized as a University Excellence Consortium under the Universities of Excellence funding line. The proposal, titled “RMU-EXCITE – Excellent. Collaborative. Transformative.”, highlights the shared goal of transforming the Rhine-Main Universities alliance into an internationally leading center for cutting-edge research that provides groundbreaking solutions to complex scientific and societal challenges. At the same time, the alliance is committed to fostering a research culture that strengthens the connection between science and society, emphasizing dialogue, participation, and the collaborative creation of knowledge as integral components of scientific excellence.
This proposal was made possible by the significant success of the three universities in the Clusters of Excellence funding line – in May, five RMU cluster initiatives were approved for funding starting in 2026.
University of Excellence Project
The project managers of the RMU's application project within the framework of the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments can be reached collectively at exstra@rhein-main-universitaeten.de.
Contact persons
Annabel Bokern (Excellence Strategy Unit at Goethe University)
Dr. Amelie Scheu (Excellence Strategy Project at Johannes Gutenberg University)
Lisa-Maria Heinisch (formerly Speck) (Staff Unit for Excellence Strategy at Technical University of Darmstadt)
About the Excellence Strategy
The aim of the Excellence Strategy is to strengthen Germany’s position as an outstanding research hub in the long term and further improve its international competitiveness. The Excellence Strategy is implemented in two funding lines by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science and Humanities Council: the Clusters of Excellence funding line designed to support project-based funding in internationally competitive fields of research at universities or university consortia and the Universities of Excellence funding line which serves to strengthen universities as individual institutions or as university consortia in the long term and further develop their leading international role based on successful Clusters of Excellence. For the latter, individual universities must have at least two, consortia must have at least three Clusters of Excellence.
Financial support through federal and state funding is not the only reason why success in the Excellence Competition is important for universities. It also promotes national and international visibility, because, on the international stage, the program is considered an elite funding program. Clusters of Excellence are able to work on interdisciplinary fields of research with a long-term perspective and further develop research and infrastructure jointly with non-university research partners. They also increase a university’s attractiveness as a research and study location. As an alliance, the Rhine-Main Universities want to strengthen their attractiveness through various joint and complementary offers in research and teaching, improve support for scientists and staff and increase synergies in infrastructure and transfer. In doing so, they want to contribute to sharpening the region’s profile as an internationally visible center of science. A successful proposal as a University Excellence Consortium in the Universities of Excellence Competition would mean an extraordinary boost, in particular on an international level.
