The multi-year competition for funding under the Excellence Strategy’s Clusters of Excellence has concluded. Out of 98 remaining competitors, 57 were existing Clusters seeking renewal. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin was the only medical university invited to submit proposals for three potential Clusters.
As of the afternoon of May 22, 2025, it has been confirmed that 70 research alliances at 43 German universities will receive funding over the next seven years (2026–2033), with up to € 10 million per Cluster annually. Among these are “ImmunoPreCept: Cell-based Molecular Prevention and Interceptive Medicine: Exploring the Health-Disease Bifurcation,” which will commence in 2026, and “NeuroCure – Comprehensive approaches to neurological and psychiatric disorders – from mechanisms to interventions –,” a research alliance established in 2007. NeuroCure has been rated excellent for the fourth consecutive time.
The spokespersons for ImmunoPreCept are Prof. Britta Siegmund (Charité), Prof. Andreas Diefenbach (Charité), and Prof. Nikolaus Rajewsky (Max Delbrück Center); for NeuroCure: Prof. Dietmar Schmitz (Charité) and Prof. Andrea Kühn (Charité). All are past or current grantees of Stiftung Charité.
Of the 25 principal investigators in the NeuroCure Cluster, nine (36 %) are Stiftung Charité grantees; in ImmunoPreCept, 11 out of 25 (44 %) are grantees of ours. Furthermore, three members of the international 17-member Scientific Advisory Board of NeuroCure are also Stiftung Charité grantees: Prof. Ray Dolan, Prof. Hannah Monyer, and Prof. Thomas Südhof.
The double success sends a strong signal: Berlin’s life sciences are conducting cutting-edge research – and have done so, consistently, over many years. From January 1, 2026, this momentum will continue to grow.
Stiftung Charité is proud to have supported the applications from Berlin’s life sciences community, including through Visiting Fellowships and Networking Events held to develop the proposals and underlying strategy.
For more information, please refer to the press releases from Charité (in German), the Max Delbrück Center, the Berlin University Alliance (BUA, in German) and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
