[The German Excellence Initiative : effects on the medical schools]

The Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Government in 2006 and 2007 was motivated by the political wish to have a limited number of excellent universities in Germany that could reach top positions in the international research ranking, comparable to the top universities of Great Britain and the United States. In two rounds, the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the National Research Council (Wissenschaftsrat) evaluated more than 300 project proposals. Out of those, 39 Graduate Schools, 37 Centers of Excellence and 9 proposals for University Strategies were selected for support with 1.9 EUR billion. University medicine made a substantial contribution to the successful strategy concepts, on average more than other university faculties. Seven medical schools were successful in obtaining a Cluster of Excellence as well as one or two Graduate Schools, providing the basis for a successful University Strategy Concept. With the example of the Georg August University Göttingen, it will be shown how success was reached by the cooperation with non-university research institutions and by recruiting original ideas for research support. All successful universities have proven excellent research networks; however, elite universities according to international standards will not be created by the German Excellence Initiative.