Germany's elite universities, which originated from the German University Excellence Initiative (German: Exzellenzinitiative), were initiated by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the German Science Foundation, aiming at perfecting the plan to promote scientific research and academic innovation in German universities. The plan includes funding specific excellent universities and funding the research of outstanding young researchers in specific universities; Strengthen cooperation between universities and projects; Strengthen the cooperative research between German universities and international academic institutions and universities. There are three levels of funding for the Excellence program of German universities: Zukunftskonzepte, Exzellenzcluster and Graduiertenschule. German elite universities are not lifelong, and they implement a five-year rolling selection system. From 20 12 to 20 17, there are * *1"elite universities", 3 universities of science and engineering (technical university of munich, Dresden University of Technology and Aachen University of Technology) and 8 universities of arts and sciences (Heidelberg University, Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University of Berlin). The universities of G? ttingen, Freiburg and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology were eliminated.