State Excellence Initiative

In January 2009, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg established a State Excellence Initiative to strenghten and promote research cooperation among Hamburg universities and other universities, institutes and partners.

The Universität Hamburg successfully applied to establish 11 Projects. These include 6 State Excellence Clusters and 5 state graduate programs.

State Excellence Initiative

State Graduate Programs

The fundamentally inter-disciplinary projects have been planned for a period of 3.5 years. They will be funded until the end of 2010 by the State Excellence Initiative and financed until 2012 by the Academic Foundation. Within this period, participating scholars and scientists will prepare for the Excellence Initiative's next round and/or third-party funding.

Further information about the background and funding decisions can be found on the pages of the Office of Science and Research.

To support the State Excellence Initiative, the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg has supplied 15 million euros for two years. Another 20 million euros over a two-year period are currently planned for the research and scientific foundation. Furthermore, the Joachim Herz Foundation has agreed to act as the Initiative's private patron and partner.