RWTH Aachen University Launches the Second Phase of the Excellence Initiative

  Peter Winandy

For the second time in a row, RWTH Aachen has succeeded in the Excellence Initiative by the German federal and state governments, thus being able to consolidate its leading position within the German research landscape in the years between 2012 and 2017. In June 2012, Its new Institutional Strategy, titled “RWTH 2020: Meeting Global Challenges. The Integrated Interdisciplinary University of Technology,” was confirmed by the authorization committee.  This decision in Germany’s excellence initiative strengthens the leading position of RWTH Aachen University in Germany and enhances its international competitiveness.

 

Apart from the Institutional Strategy, the committee approved three proposals in the other two funding lines, Graduate Schools and Clusters of Excellence.

RWTH strives to be one of the world’s best integrated interdisciplinary technical universities by the year 2020,” emphasizes Rector Prof. Ernst Schmachtenberg. This process of continuous change was initiated by the first phase of the Excellence Initiative in 2007 and the Institutional Strategy I.

RWTH wants to invest the funding amount of approx. 60 million Euros for the Institutional Strategy II into “excellent” activities. Furthermore, the two approved Clusters of Excellence, “Integrative Production Technology for High-Wage Countries” and “Tailor-Made Fuels from Biomass (TMFB),” will receive funding of 28 million Euros each. The Graduate School “Aachen Institute for Advanced Study in Computational Engineering Science (AICES)” will invest 7.4 million Euros to further enhance its top-level doctoral programs.

 “Due to our success in all of the three funding lines, we are facing a unique and valuable opportunity to further sharpen our scientific profile,” declares Schmachtenberg. RWTH Aachen will therefore be able to pursue top-level research and improve its international visibility.