Excellence Strategy: UniSysCat proposal submitted

21 February 2018

The designated spokespersons Prof. Matthias Driess, Prof. Arne Thomas, and Prof. Peter Hildebrandt have submitted the full proposal for the Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Systems in Catalysis”, UniSysCat in short.

Some of UniSysCat’s research group leaders in February 2018 © TU Berlin / Phil Dera

They were invited by the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG) in September 2017 to submit a full research proposal. The decision as to which projects will be funded will be announced on September 27, 2018. The winning clusters will then be supported for seven years beginning in January 1, 2019. After that, there will be an opportunity to apply for a second funding period. The cluster initiative UniSysCat is built on the successful Cluster of Excellence “Unifying Concepts in Catalysis” (UniCat) which has been supported since 2007.

Universities with at least one successful cluster proposal within the new Excellence Strategy may submit a proposal in the funding line “Excellence Universities”. Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have submitted a joint letter of intent to the German Council.

Spokespersons Matthias Driess, Arne Thomas, and Peter Hildebrandt © TU Berlin / Christian Kielmann

The decision regarding the Universities of Excellence funding line will be announced on July 19, 2019. The winning universities will receive funding for seven years beginning November 1, 2019. After seven years and a successful evaluation, they can receive funding for another seven years.

“All of those responsible for submitting full proposals for clusters have done outstanding work in a very short time. They deserve our many thanks,” says the TU president Prof. Dr. Christian Thomsen. “But there is still work to be done. Dates for appraisals of these projects are scheduled from April through June.” The evaluation of UniSysCat will take place on June 27.