Excellence Initiative. In the fiscal year 2007, the university for the first time raised approximately €19 M through tuition fees, exclusively to further improve the conditions of study. Only approximately €9.5 M of these were spent at the end of the year and the rectorate had to urge the faculties to make use of their additional means.
=== Research ===
Among historical scientific achievements of Heidelberg researchers features prominently the invention of spectroscopy, and of the Bunsen burner; the discovery of chemical elements Caesium and Rubidium; the identification of the absolute point of ebullition; and the identification and isolation of nicotine as the main pharmacologically active component of tobacco. Modern scientific psychiatry; psychopharmacology; psychiatric genetics; environmental physics; and modern sociology were introduced as scientific disciplines by Heidelberg faculty. Almost 800 dwarf planets, the North America Nebula, and the return of Halley's Comet have been discovered and documented …
