Initiative for Excellence

Excellence and responsibility

With its belief in the 'comprehensive university', Heidelberg University has made the leap into the group of those nine universities which were able to present convincing strategies for the third funding line of the German federal and state governments’ Excellence Initiative.

As a result, the University will receive additional funding for its forward-looking strategy "Heidelberg: Realising the Potential of a Comprehensive University" until the year 2012. Promoting research and young academics, this funding will help it take a decisive step forward in the transition from a classic "universitas" to a comprehensive university of the future.

Its success in the Excellence Initiative’s other two lines of funding substantiates the claim of Germany’s oldest university (Ruperto Carola), founded in 1386, to the number one spot which it regularly occupies in international rankings. As a University of Excellence it now has a unique opportunity to develop knowledge aimed at answering some of the important questions facing humanity and to make Heidelberg an even more successful and more attractive place internationally.

Founded on a basis of disciplinary strengths, this institutional strategy is intended to develop interdisciplinary cooperation and to improve Heidelberg’s position within national and international networks. Three main lines of action are to be emphasised which serve to strengthen the basic principle a comprehensive university: one of these is the founding of the Marsilius Kolleg which will instil a newfound quality into cooperation between the disciplines of different academic cultures. The strategic alliance between the Center for Molecular Biology and the German Cancer Research Center should serve as a role model to the rest of the country. And not least, the institutional strategy aims for better funding for young academics.

Additionally, five centres of excellence underpin the research strength of Heidelberg University:

• The Graduate School of Fundamental Physics
• The Heidelberg Graduate School of Mathematical and Computational Methods for the Sciences
• The Hartmut Hoffmann-Berling International Graduate School of Molecular and Cellular Biology
• The "Cellular Networks" cluster of excellence
• The "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows" cluster of excellence