TU Dresden and Leipzig University in final round for Cluster of Excellence

It's all about prestige and a lot of money: TU Dresden and Leipzig University have made it to the final round of applicants for the new funding round of the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments. This was announced by the Saxon Ministry of Science in Dresden on Friday. A total of two applications from Leipzig University and three from TU Dresden will be considered.

The concepts will be evaluated by a high-ranking scientific commission. Only then will a decision be made as to which projects will be funded over the seven-year funding period. According to the information provided, a total of 687 million euros per year will be available to the Clusters of Excellence from 2026. "It is an extraordinarily great success that two of our universities have now reached the final round in the competition for Clusters of Excellence," said Saxony's Science Minister Sebastian Gemkow (CDU).

The Clusters of Excellence provide project-based funding for internationally competitive research fields at universities or university alliances. Scientists from different disciplines and institutions work together on a research project. The prerequisites are also excellent training opportunities for young scientists and opportunities for young researchers to make a name for themselves. According to the Ministry of Science, how much money the two universities could receive depends on the respective projects.

The projects at Leipzig University are dedicated to understanding and improving diseases as well as the interactions between biodiversity loss and climate change. At TU Dresden, the focus is on topics such as sustainable electronics, resource-efficient construction or the question of whether brain mechanisms can be transferred to machine learning.

In May 2025, a decision will be made as to which universities will be awarded the Cluster of Excellence in this funding round. Universities that want to achieve the coveted title of "University of Excellence" must have at least two such clusters, university alliances must have three.

In Saxony, TU Dresden already has this coveted status. There are eleven "Universities of Excellence" nationwide.