Germany has long been a science powerhouse, quietly turning out high-quality research without any headline-grabbing institutions like Oxbridge or the Ivy League. Then, in 2005, the government decided to change this, and set up the Excellence Initiative (El). Putting aside ideals of equality, and with €1.9 billion behind it, the El set out to sort the wheat from the chaff, or rather the country's excellent institutions from the merely good.
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