Sir

The excellence initiative is indeed a welcome addition to the German academic world, as your Naturejobs Feature 'Allowing an élite' points out (Nature 450, 452–453; 2007). But you omit to mention the plight of women academics. Only 10% of full professors at German universities are female. Just 14.6% of all grants from the DFG, Germany's main funding agency for university research, were awarded to women in 2006, a mere 2% rise since 2003.

I would be interested to know how many women received financial 'excellence cluster' awards, and whether the DFG is making attempts to reward female scientists in Germany's male-dominated academia. The Feature, whose interviewees and examples were all male, conveys the impression that this will continue to be a man's world.