Berlin International Forum for Excellence Looks to Form Research Centre of Excellence. (June 12, 2008)

Although Jürgen Zöllner, Berlin's senator for science and education wanted a new "super-university" for the German capital, opposition from the city's existing universities prompted a change of plans.

As an alternative, the municipal government has designated €40 million (A$66 million) per annum over the next 4 years to attract top researchers to Berlin's four principal universities and research institutes.

The Berlin International Forum for Excellence has been given the task of identifying areas of research excellence among the institutions and according to ScienceNOW "distribute funds to top up salaries of world-class researchers, set up graduate schools, and attract visiting scholars to the city".

In announcing the plan Senator Zöllner said, "[Berlin will become] one of the most important locations for research in the world while former federal undersecretary for research Wolf-Michael Catenhusen believes, "It is as if MIT, Harvard, and Boston University were all to cooperate on a project", and hopes that the Foundation will be able to attract additional private donations to boost funding.

Berlin is hardly unique in devising approaches to attract the best and brightest to its research sector and it ought to give our government pause regarding the initiatives it will have to put into place to compete.

Even Stanford eventually learned that a salubrious climate and unparalleled environment wasn't enough to turn it into one of the world's top research universities.