In this closed workshop, experts from the BCGE signature projects, together with the BCGE Advisory Board as well as the DAAD centres TRAJECTS, G-WAC and GLACIER discuss the current excellence paradigm in international research cooperation and develop thinking on how to move beyond. Since the 1990s, excellence-based research funding has become a central strategy for many governments aiming to promote research and boost international competitiveness. Today, one could argue that the concept of ‘excellence’ lies at the heart of the global science system, playing a pivotal role in strategic decision-making at both institutional and individual levels (Kraemer-Mbula et al., 2020).

Advocates of the excellence paradigm maintain that identifying outstanding research through highly competitive selection processes is essential for raising the visibility of groundbreaking findings, especially on an international stage. However, critics argue that the pursuit of excellence has contributed to the standardization of research, stifling originality and long-term thinking in research design. They also point to how the emphasis on competitiveness around limited funding resources exacerbates exclusion. This dynamic reinforces the marginalization of knowledge, individuals, and contexts that have historically been disadvantaged within the global science system – due to political, economic, or historical reasons.

Recent debates on the measurement of research quality may provide an entry point for responding constructively to such critiques of the excellence paradigm. Meta-researchers particularly in the UK, the Netherlands, and in Berlin (cf. researchers linked to BUA-Objective 3 “Research Quality & Value”) have called for a shift in focus: When assessing and promoting research quality, it may be worth shifting attention from a narrow focus on quantitative outputs – typical of the traditional excellence paradigm – toward a closer examination of institutional conditions and the cultures they foster. The term “research culture” has recently gained traction in the field of science studies. It encompasses the behaviors, values, expectations, attitudes, and norms of research systems (Royal Society, 2018). Research cultures vary among disciplines and are profoundly shaped by the research conditions created by research institutions. They can be perceived as cooperative or uncooperative, as fair or unfair, as promoting or inhibiting ideas (Ambrasat et al., 2024).

This shift in perspective affects the way we look at international cooperation. And it resonates with some of the principles laid out in the Africa Charter for Transformative Research Collaborations. If excellence is not solely about outputs but also about cultivating the conditions for high-quality research, then the central question becomes:

What kinds of cooperation settings and research cultures foster quality in projects involving partners who occupy unequal positions within the global science system?

This question will be central to a forthcoming workshop organized by the Berlin Center for Global Engagement (BCGE). The event will bring together key projects from the Berlin University Alliance that collaborate with partners in the Global South.

A key outcome of the workshop will be a collaboratively developed position paper offering recommendations on fostering quality in international collaboration. This document is intended to inform future initiatives and improve the structural conditions for equitable, high-quality global research partnerships at the Berlin University Alliance and beyond. Furthermore we are planning to incorporate the results of the workshop in the Conference “ReBound – Research Culture Beyond Boundaries” A joint event organized by the Berlin University Alliance, the Einstein Foundation Berlin, the University of Cambridge, and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) Leiden in 2026.