...because on 2 March 2011, the German Research Foundation (DFG) will announce its decision on the preliminary proposals submitted for the 2nd programme phase of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments. "We hearing researchers from Oldenburg and Hanover are eagerly awaiting this decision," says Prof Dr Dr Birger Kollmeier, Head of the Department of Medical Physics at the University of Oldenburg and spokesperson for the proposed "Hearing4all" cluster of excellence. On 2 March, however, it has not yet been decided which universities will receive funding for excellent research and science for five years from the end of 2012. Those who clear this first hurdle will initially only be admitted to submit a complete proposal, on which a decision will not be made until mid-2012.

A consortium of 24 renowned researchers from the University of Oldenburg, Hannover Medical School and Leibniz Universität Hannover have applied with their outline for an interdisciplinary research network. "Hearing for all, in all situations and for all people with varying degrees of hearing loss is to be achieved through a combination of interdisciplinary basic, applied and clinical research," explains Kollmeier. The Jade University of Applied Sciences and Arts is also involved, as are the non-university research institutions HörTech Center of Competence, Fraunhofer Project Group for Hearing, Speech and Audio Technology, the hearing centres in Hanover and Oldenburg and twelve industrial partners.

"We were already in the final round in 2006 - but without being awarded the contract. But now we are in a much better position - thanks to the interim funding from the state of Lower Saxony and the academic appointment of excellent new colleagues to Oldenburg and Hanover," comments Kollmeier on the current opportunities. "But the DFG is also taking a much tougher look this time: we are competing against the renewal proposals of many clusters that were already funded at the time. The DFG is therefore only allowing those clusters through the pre-selection process that have a real chance of receiving funding - which makes the decision all the more exciting!"