Connecting Creative Minds

“Connecting Creative Minds – Trinational, European, Global”: That is the motto of the University of Freiburg’s institutional strategy for the second funding line of the Excellence competition. The proposal was submitted to the Science Council in Cologne on 10 December 2018. The university names three central goals in the proposal: fostering creativity across the entire university, creating a stronger research profile and making the university into a laboratory for new research ideas, and founding a European university with the Upper Rhine university network EUCOR – The European Campus and further European partners.

“We want to shape the entire university and its institutional culture to enable everyone who works, teaches, researches, and studies here to freely develop their creative potential,” says Rector Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Schiewer. “All of our members have worked to maneuver the University of Freiburg into an outstanding starting position. They have made us into one of the most high-performing and innovative universities in Germany. Now we are ready for the next step: As one of the driving forces of a European university, we want to significantly improve our international competitiveness, visibility, and attractiveness and join the ranks of the top universities in Europe.”

The University of Freiburg was previously successful with two proposals in the “Clusters of Excellence” funding line: The clusters “CIBSS – Centre for Integrative Biological Signalling Studies” in biological signaling studies and “livMatS – Living, Adaptive, and Energy-autonomous Materials Systems” in bioinspired materials research are set to take up their work on 1 January 2019. At the same time, this result qualified Freiburg to also submit a proposal in the “Universities of Excellence” funding line, where it is now competing against 16 other universities and two university networks. Up to eleven proposals can be selected for funding. The decision will be announced on 19 July 2019.

The University of Freiburg’s Excellence Portal