Elite Universities: breeding Germany’s next generation of Nobellists

Indeed, the sentiment in the German science landscape hasn’t been higher in recent years. The country just cleaned up on Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics, and last week the second and final round of competition in the Excellence Initiative ended with a total of nine schools receiving the maximum level of funding.

Along with Heidelberg, the following universities were dubbed elite: RWTH Aachen, the Free University of Berlin, the University of Freiburg, the University of Göttingen and the University of Constance. In the first round, three schools were named: the University of Karlsruhe, the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich and the Technical University of Munich. (See ScienceBusiness 14 October 2006, Germany names research “Ivy League”)

“We wrote a new page in the history of science,” Education Minister Annette Schavan told German reporters after the announcement on Friday.

Each school will receive an average of Euro 21 million per year in additional funding for the next five years as part of the programme that is investing Euro 1.9 billion in German research.

The Excellence Initiative is designed to catapult Germany’s universities to world-class level. In a recent ranking of worldwide universities, German schools failed to make the top 50, although the country is the world’s largest exporter with a focus on high-tech and industrial goods.

The initiative has been criticised in public discussion since it put an end to the long-held idea that all German universities are equal. Indeed, it appears the international jury that selected the universities eliminated geographical and political considerations: A majority of schools are in southern Germany, and no winners hail from the east.

In addition, Germany's Research Foundation (DFG) and the Scientific Council, which oversaw the selection process, chose just nine schools out of a total of 11 that made it to the final round of  the competition for maximum funding. Officials had said they wanted to choose about 10 elite universities. By selecting only nine universities, the government cannot be accused of watering down the prize money by spreading it too thin.