Outstanding success: TU Dresden secures an impressive five Clusters of Excellence
22.05.2025
© Sven Ellger / TUD
TUD Dresden University of Technology has impressively proven its claim to be a top university for the 21st century. From the six research projects submitted for full proposal, a high-caliber, international panel of experts selected five as Clusters of Excellence that will receive new or continued funding starting in 2026. This was announced by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science and Humanities Council (WR) on May 22, 2025. TUD manages three of the Clusters entirely on its own, the other two are university consortia, one with Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg and the other with RWTH Aachen University. The five Clusters of Excellence cover the fields of resource-efficient construction, sustainable microelectronics, robotics and tactile internet, quantum physics, as well as physics of life. With three Clusters managed entirely on its own and two in collaborative Clusters, TUD is among the TOP 5 universities in Germany and is the best performing technical university in this competition.
During the DFG’s live broadcast to announce their funding decision, TUD’s Rector, Prof. Ursula Staudinger, was joined by around one hundred cheering guests – including the members of the Extended University Executive Board and the speakers of the Clusters of Excellence and Cluster of Excellence Initiatives in the ballroom of the Rectorate Building.
The fact that as a result of this highly competitive process we are entering the new funding phase with five Clusters of Excellence is a tremendous success and clearly demonstrates TUD’s standing as one of Germany’s top universities and the strength of the DRESDEN-concept research alliance.