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MLU applies for Cluster of Excellence

Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has achieved an important milestone in the race for funding as part of the Excellence Strategy: The international review panel of the German Research Foundation (DFG) has selected an outline from the field of physics to submit a full proposal. This means that MLU is now among the finalists in the competition for clusters of excellence. The decision on which clusters will be funded will be made in May 2025. "The DFG has invited one of our outlines to submit a full proposal. In a competition as tight as the Excellence Strategy, this is already an important initial success because it confirms that MLU is already conducting top-class research that deserves to be labelled excellent. Now the already very good outline must be followed by an outstanding proposal that can compete with existing clusters of excellence. I would like to thank all the scientists involved for their hard work and wish them every success in the coming months," says MLU Rector Prof. Dr. Claudia Becker. MLU submitted a total of three draft proposals for the next round of the Excellence Strategy.

Cluster of Excellence "Center for Chiral Electronics"

MLU was successful with the "Center for Chiral Electronics" initiative, a joint application by MLU, Freie Universität Berlin and the University of Regensburg. Chirality describes the property that an object cannot be made to coincide with its mirror image through rotation and displacement. This characterises many objects in nature and gives them intrinsic stability. The Cluster of Excellence "Center for Chiral Electronics" is researching this concept in solid-state physics in order to create the basis for technologies that meet the growing demands for high-performance and energy-saving electronics. The applicant researchers are Prof. Dr. Georg Woltersdorf (MLU), Prof. Dr. Katharina Franke (Freie Universität Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Christoph Strunk (Universität Regensburg).

The Excellence Strategy aims to sustainably strengthen Germany as a center of science and further improve its international competitiveness. There are two funding lines: In addition to clusters of excellence, universities of excellence are also supported, which must first demonstrate several successful clusters of excellence. The Federal Government and the “Länder” will provide a total of 687 million euros annually from 2026 - 539 million euros for the clusters of excellence and 148 million euros for the universities of excellence.

Further information on the Excellence Strategy is available on the website of the German Research Foundation: https://www.dfg.de/foerderung/foerderinitiativen/exzellenzstrategie/index.html   

MLU's outline is one of two initiatives from Saxony-Anhalt that have made it to the finals of the Excellence Strategy. Further information can be found in the press release from the Ministry of Science: https://mwu.sachsen-anhalt.de/artikel-detail/exzellenzfoerdermittel-finalrunde   

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