On 19 July 2019, the Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) in Bonn decided that the "Berlin University Alliance" of four Berlin universities would receive up to 196 million euros in funding from the Federal Government and the Federal States for the next few years.

Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin are the only universities in Germany that have joined forces for the first time in this competition. With the motto "Crossing Boundaries toward an Integrated Research Environment“, the partners want to work together even more intensively in the future, especially with a focus on climate change.

The network is based on the approach that major challenges such as climate change, globalization and new technologies can only be successfully researched and mastered together.

Objective 1: "Focusing on Grand Challenges", according to the funding proposal, is intended to promote the "development of a Berlin-wide agenda for joint research on social challenges of global significance". These challenges include "Social Cohesion", which in turn includes aspects of the climate crisis.

Most recently, the Berlin University Alliance emphasized the responsibility of science to develop solutions to global climate change. It plans to strengthen networking between different research topics as well as multiple researchers in Berlin by establishing a new Center for Climate Change, which shall offer a common platform.

We are pleased about the cooperation, especially in the area of "Social Cohesion" and the impulse for social-ecological transformation!

Find out more about the Berlin University Alliance here.

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The Excellence Initiative of the Federal Government and the Federal States intends to promote science and research at German universities and thus to strengthen Germany's position as an international science location and make it more visible. The title "Excellence University" was awarded for the first time in 2006. Since January 2019, funding has continued under the name of the Excellence Strategy, with the Federal Government and the Federal States providing 533 million euros per year at a ratio of 75 to 25.