The Berlin University Alliance has won funding as a group in the Universities of Excellence funding line of the German government’s Excellence Strategy. The four Berlin partners – Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin – submitted a joint proposal entitled Crossing Boundaries toward an Integrated Research Environment. 

The four institutions performed very well in the decisions in the first funding line. On September 27, 2018, seven Clusters of Excellence were approved for funding. As of January 1, 2019, these interdisciplinary research projects are being funded for an initial seven years, each with up to ten million euros per year. An extension of the funding for another seven years will be based on a review of the first funding phase.