Göttingen University is the only university in Northern Germany that was selected to receive funding within the framework of the Initiative for Excellence of the Federation and the Länder (states). It was selected for its institutional strategy “Göttingen. Tradition – Innovation – Autonomy”. The concept for project-oriented development of top-class university research involves the measures Brain Gain, Brain Sustain, LichtenbergKolleg, and Göttingen International. The Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences and Molecular Biosciences and the excellence cluster “Microscopy at the Nanometer Range” also came out as winners at the excellence competition.