The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia organized a competition for the creation of three new Universities on 28 May 2008. The applicants were Kleve and the "We-4"-cities (Kamp-Lintfort, Moers, Neukirchen and Rheinberg), but the concept of separate universities was discarded. Instead, in November 2008, the responsibility was assigned jointly to the two competing candidates Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort, to establish a bipolar university.