Setback for the international reputation of Berlin as a center of science and research

VBKI Managing Director Ute Weiland comments on Berlin's performance in the Excellence Competition.

Berlin, May 23, 2025: Ute Weiland, Managing Director of the Association of Berlin Merchants and Industrialists (VBKI), commented on the results of the Excellence Competition published yesterday as follows:

 "Ten Berlin research clusters had applied, in the end only five were awarded the contract - two less than before. The results of the current excellence competition published yesterday are mixed for Berlin. Irrespective of the considerable funding that will now not flow into the local scientific landscape, the modest result sends an unfavorable signal to the world. Berlin's future as a location for science, innovation and economic development also depends on the international appeal of its research institutions.

 The fact that Bonn and Tübingen have now joined Munich in overtaking Berlin in the number of clusters of excellence is a setback for the capital's international reputation as a science metropolis - and this at a time when many top researchers, particularly from the USA, are considering Europe as a possible new place to work.

 It is now important to analyze the causes of the performance in detail: What role did the austerity signals from state politics play? Was there a lack of joint action, a lack of strategic unity? And did we perhaps rely too much on Berlin's supposed indispensability as a research location? In any case, we should take the warning seriously: Berlin is by no means "too big to fail".