In order to further strengthen the international competitiveness of research at German universities, the federal and state governments have established the Excellence Strategy as a funding programme. The central aim is to promote research excellence in internationally competitive areas, to strengthen German universities institutionally and to further develop the German higher education system.

To this end, the Excellence Strategy comprises two funding lines that build on each other. In the ‘Clusters of Excellence’ funding line, coordinated by the DFG, internationally competitive research areas at German universities are funded on a project basis. In the ‘Universities of Excellence’ funding line, coordinated by the German Council of Science and Humanities (WR), overall institutional strategies are funded that improve the scientific performance of the funded institutions and create outstanding framework conditions for excellent research.

The Rhine-Main science region and the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU), the alliance of TU Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, can also benefit from the decision as to which new or existing clusters will be funded in the future.