Ruhr Innovation Lab to receive funding as a University Consortium of Excellence
Major success for Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University
- 02.10.2026
The University of Duisburg-Essen’s partner universities, Ruhr University Bochum and TU Dortmund University, convinced an international panel with their vision for integrating academic activities across institutional boundaries in the Ruhr Innovation Lab. On 2 October, the German Science and Humanities Council announced that the Ruhr Innovation Lab will in future receive funding from the German federal and state governments as a University Consortium of Excellence. The University of Duisburg-Essen congratulates its partners on this outstanding success within the University Alliance Ruhr – a success that demonstrates the Ruhr region’s strength in research.
“This is a wonderful and thoroughly deserved achievement for our neighbouring universities in Bochum and Dortmund, and one that all of us in the University Alliance Ruhr can be proud of. My heartfelt congratulations on the excellent Ruhr Innovation Lab, whose success will benefit us at the University of Duisburg-Essen as well as the Ruhr region as a whole. We look forward to this innovative experimental space, where new forms of academic collaboration can be conceived and tested. The University Alliance Ruhr provides a strong foundation for this: trust built up over many years and a shared university culture supported by numerous joint institutions and structures. I am certain that the interplay between the established University Alliance Ruhr and the freedom to experiment within the Ruhr Innovation Lab will enable our academic excellence to have tremendous impact on society, the economy and policymaking,” says Professor Barbara Albert, Spokesperson of the University Alliance Ruhr and Rector of the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University and the University of Duisburg-Essen have been working together in the University Alliance Ruhr for almost twenty years. Their many joint activities reached an important milestone with the establishment of the Research Alliance Ruhr, funded by the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and comprising four Research Centers and one College. The Ruhr Innovation Lab, as a University Consortium of Excellence, will now provide scope to test new forms of integration. Although the University of Duisburg-Essen was not able to participate in the bid for the new University Consortium of Excellence, the emerging ecosystem created by Bochum and Dortmund will open up new creative opportunities for joint research, teaching and engagement with business and society – and give fresh impetus to cooperation among all three universities.
In addition to the Ruhr Innovation Lab, four other university sites have newly gained the status of University of Excellence or University Consortium of Excellence. From January 2027, the German federal and state governments will therefore fund twelve Universities of Excellence and three University Consortia of Excellence across Germany.
About the Excellence Strategy
The Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments is a competitive funding programme for top-level research. It was first launched in 2005 under the name Excellence Initiative. Universities that secure the required number of Clusters of Excellence are eligible to apply in a second funding line for the status of University of Excellence or University Consortium of Excellence. Applicants must submit a strategic concept designed both to strengthen the international competitiveness of their research and to enhance the institution’s capacity for structural renewal.
Applications are assessed by international reviewers on the basis of a written proposal and a multi-day on-site visit. For the seven-year funding period beginning in 2027, up to 15 funded sites were envisaged. Ten existing recipients were eligible for continued funding, while eleven new applicants entered the competition.
Alongside the Ruhr Innovation Lab, the following institutions will now receive funding for the first time: the University of Freiburg, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, the University of Cologne and the Rhine-Main Universities consortium comprising Technical University of Darmstadt, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Further information
Ruhr Innovation Lab website:
https://www.ruhr-innovation-lab.de/
University Alliance Ruhr website:
https://www.uaruhr.de/