Freie Universität Berlin

Freie Universität Berlin has been a German University of Excellence since 2007. The university was able to use its success in all three funding lines of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments to develop itself as an “International Network University,” a world-class institution for cutting-edge research. The university is a magnet for students and researchers from around the world and an outstanding location for training talented researchers. Interdisciplinary collaboration has further strengthened the performance of individual disciplines, as regularly demonstrated by international rankings. The university has never lost sight of the ideal arising from the concepts guiding its founding in 1948, using them as the basis for its proposal in the Excellence Initiative: Veritas, Iustitia, and Libertas – truth, justice, and freedom.

In 2005 with the Excellence Initiative, the German federal and state governments launched a competition for funding among the best German universities. The program was also intended to strengthen Germany as a whole as a leading location for research.

In contrast to its successor program, called the Excellence Strategy, the Excellence Initiative had three funding lines in both program phases (2006 to 2012 and 2012 to 2017): 1. Graduate schools to promote junior researchers, 2. Clusters of Excellence to promote top-level research, and 3. Developing strategies for universities to promote cutting-edge research.

In 2007 Freie Universität Berlin won its status as one of nine Universities of Excellence in the first German Excellence Initiative. The university was able to defend this status in June 2012 with its development concept “Veritas – Iustitia – Libertas. International Network University” (funding line 3), receiving funding through 2019. The university’s proposal was based on the three founding principles of Freie Universität as well as its intensive networking in research and teaching at regional, national, and international levels, which had been so crucial for the university founded in 1948 in the island of West Berlin. The future development concept was based on the profile-building processes that had already started in the 1990s, laying the foundation for present-day Freie Universität and its independent profile within the Berlin University Alliance.

Freie Universität was also successful in the funding line for Clusters of Excellence (funding line 2), large collaborative research projects with strategic importance for the university’s research profile. A total of three cluster applications from the university were approved in 2007, including the interdisciplinary cluster “Languages of Emotion.” Two other clusters “Topoi – The Formation and Transformation of Space and Knowledge in Ancient Civilizations” and “NeuroCure” won funding in both program phases (2007, 2012). “NeuroCure,” a cluster based at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the medical school operated jointly by Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität, won funding in both phases of the Excellence Initiative, as well as in the follow-up program, the Excellence Strategy.

In the first program phase (2006 to 2012), Freie Universität Berlin was already very successful in the funding line for promoting graduate education (funding line 1). In particular, the strong humanities and social sciences at Freie Universität were able to assert themselves in this area.

In the second program phase (2012 to 2017), some of the newly created graduate programs were continued in cooperation with Humboldt-Universität, in order to provide even better training conditions for doctoral candidates. The graduate schools at Freie Universität Berlin benefited from the Dahlem Research School as an umbrella organization for structured doctoral programs at Freie Universität Berlin, which was set up with funds from the future development concept. The Dahlem Research School also offers professional training programs and grants for postdoctoral researchers to facilitate their career entry.

The structured doctoral programs at Freie Universität Berlin proved to be successful. All the graduate schools funded in the Excellence Initiative continue to provide structured graduate training programs. The funding line for graduate schools was discontinued in the follow-up competition, the Excellence Strategy.

Graduate Schools at Freie Universität Funded in the Excellence Initiative

• Berlin Graduate School Muslim Cultures and Societies
• Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School of Literary Studies
• Graduate School of North American Studies

• Graduate School of East Asian Studies

Joint Proposals

• Berlin Mathematical School (with Technische Universität Berlin, host university, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
• Berlin School of Integrative Oncology (BSIO) (Charité)
• Berlin-Brandenburg School for Regenerative Therapies (BSRT) (Charité)