Twenty-one collaborative research centres in Germany will create up to 630 jobs for postdocs and PhD candidates. The German Research Foundation (DFG), the country's main granting agency, is spending €197 million (US$289 million) on the centres, which will focus mainly on biological and physical sciences. Research programmes will range from sensory processing to star formation. Opening on 1 July at various host universities, the institutions bring the total number of DFG-funded research centres to 250. The agency will fund the centres for up to 12 years, with about 25 contract scientists each, mostly PhD candidates and the rest postdocs. There are no restrictions on the nationalities of applicants.