At its second virtual meeting on January 19, 2021, participants emphasized that achieving genuine excellence in Berlin’s research landscape - including its alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (notably social cohesion and global health) - depends on embedding diversity across researchers, research questions, and institutions. Multidisciplinary and cognitively diverse teams are essential to solving grand societal challenges. The event featured reflections by Prof. Sabine Hark and input from Christina Hadulla‑Kuhlmann (from the Federal Ministry of Education & Research), who highlighted ongoing gender imbalances in academic career advancement and the value of diversity beyond gender - distinguishing between having a seat (diversity), a voice (inclusion), and being heard (belonging). DiGENet aims to form working groups, advance inclusive research methodologies, promote diversity‑sensitive teaching, and integrate network activities across all of Berlin’s research landscape - not just among the four university alliance partners.