Berlin is not only one of Europe’s largest hubs of research, but also among the most diverse. Students can choose from a wealth of subjects at the city’s more than 40 higher education institutions, including four universities, six universities of applied sciences, and three universities of the arts. The city is home to more than 70 research institutions not affiliated with academia, where researchers, scholars, and scientists work on a broad spectrum of topics, from measures to fight global epidemics and mathematical modeling of socioeconomic processes to the history of emotions.

The following are located in Berlin:

• 5 Max Planck Institutes
• 4 institutes of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
• 2 research centers of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (and one site of the German Aerospace Center, DLR)
• 14 institutes of the Leibniz Association

and other well-known research institutions, such as the headquarters of the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

All of them are involved in cooperation projects with the alliance partners, such as clusters or collaborative research centers. Without their specific expertise, the work of many successful research alliances would not be possible. In turn, researchers from the institutions not affiliated with the universities also find partners for research projects in the higher education institutions. In many cases, they also teach at one of the universities, thereby expanding the range of courses offered.

The most recent example of successful cooperation between the universities and research institutions not affiliated with academia is the German Internet Institute. With this project, a consortium based in Berlin won out over competitors from all over Germany. The project is being coordinated at the Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), with joint support from all four of Berlin’s universities – Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin University of the Arts, and Technische Universität Berlin – as well as the University of Potsdam and the Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems (FOKUS).

A Berlin Original: The Einstein Foundation

Promoting excellent science and research in Berlin at the highest international level is what the Einstein Foundation Berlin stands for. It contributes to establishing Berlin permanently as one of the world's most important research hubs.

Projects for funding are selected by a high-standard, independent scientific commission. The Einstein Foundation uses a competitive, science-driven process to identify the best projects and individuals. Its special aim is on cross-institutional research projects. The Berlin universities and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin together with those partners from science and research in Berlin not affiliated with academia are eligible to apply.

There are no institutional or subject-based quotas. The only decisive factors are the quality of the proposals and projects and their contribution to raising Berlin's profile as a research hub. The spectrum of funding ranges from antiquarian studies to zoology, from the development of new musical instruments to the fight against cancer.

In addition, since 2021 the Foundation has presented the Einstein Foundation Award, worth 500,000 euros, which honors scientists and institutions worldwide that make a fundamental contribution to improving the quality of research and the resilience of research results.

Overview of the Funding Programs

Einstein Professorship
The Einstein Foundation supports new appointments of outstanding researchers at Berlin universities and Charité with the Einstein Professorship. Negotiations on retention are also supported. Funding is provided in the form of a single grant to finance the resources required by the professorship.

Einstein Junior Fellow
The Foundation supports exceptionally talented young researchers in Berlin as Einstein Junior Fellows. In addition to the fellows' position, the respective research project can also be funded. The total funding period is three years.

Einstein Visiting Fellow
This Foundation supports leading scientists and scholars from abroad as Einstein Visiting Fellows. They complement important areas at the Berlin hub of research with their expertise and intensify international collaborations. For this purpose, the Fellows set up working groups in Berlin.

Einstein Research Fellow
Within the framework of the Einstein Research Fellowship, professors from Berlin universities and Charité complete a two-year stay at a non-university research institute.

Einstein Circle
Creating networks: the program offers Berlin researchers the opportunity for theme-based collaboration in Berlin. Einstein Circles should be organized independently and involve multiple institutions. They are particularly suitable for opening new areas of research for the scientific community in Berlin.

Einstein Foundation Doctoral Program
The program is aimed at excellent structured and long-term doctoral programs and artistic "third cycle" programs at Berlin universities and Charité. The funding line promotes forward-looking concepts for developing, field-testing, and institutionalizing practices that provide sustainable solutions to structural challenges in doctoral education.

Einstein Center
The program enables top research alliances in Berlin to establish cross-institutional research and teaching networks. Such an alliance deepens the collaboration of important scientists and is intended to promote the emergence of new, internationally visible research priorities.

Einstein Research Unit
Applications for long-term research alliances in strategically important research fields can be submitted via the Berlin University Alliance administrative office. The Einstein Foundation conducts the review on behalf of the BUA; trans- and interdisciplinary projects are encouraged.

A Destination for Researchers and Students from All over the World

Overall, Berlin’s universities and research institutions not affiliated with academia are among the most attractive locations for researchers from all over the world. According to the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Ranking (2014), nearly 730 recipients of fellowships, scholarships, and grants chose one of the three universities as the place they would spend time abroad. Freie Universität is ranked number one in the list, followed by Humboldt-Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin came in eighth. The institutions not affiliated with academia that are most frequently visited by international visiting scholars and scientists include the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the German Archaeological Institute, and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.

The number of international students is on the rise as well: During the 2015/16 winter semester, there were more than 31,160 international students in total enrolled in programs in Berlin, more than two-thirds of them at Freie Universität, Humboldt-Universität, and Technische Universität Berlin.

The City Where Walls Can Be Torn Down

Berlin also serves as an especially clear example of just how much even a research hub depends on its overall historical and political conditions. In the 19^th century Berlin came to be an academic metropolis with international appeal. The city was home to luminaries such as historian Theodor Mommsen, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for his multi-volume work on Roman history. Rudolf Virchow and Robert Koch both worked in Berlin, where they took new approaches in their research and made discoveries that advanced the field of medical science. And in November 1915, physicist Albert Einstein presented the outlines of his general theory of relativity at the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

This golden age came to an end with the expulsion of Jewish scholars and scientists – including Lise Meitner, who had discovered nuclear fission with Otto Hahn at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin’s Dahlem district – by the Nazis, followed by World War II. What was left afterward was a divided center of research, with universities and research institutions split by the Berlin Wall.

When the Wall came down on November 9, 1989, new opportunities opened up not only for Berlin and German society at large, but also for the city’s academic and research institutions and the community of researchers and students. It was a radical change whose effects are still being felt today. For example, Charité – which, until 1989, had been a model institution for the East German regime – became the joint medical school of Freie Universität and Humboldt-Universität.

The network of cooperative relationships among the academic, scientific, and research institutions in the city is growing ever closer – not least due to the shared successes that have been experienced in the Excellence Initiative. The sheer diversity of research and teaching activities in Berlin and the interaction between research based at the universities and outside them form a good basis for further shared projects.