New high in research funding

In the previous year, third-party funding income amounted to 79.4 million euros in 2023, compared to 64.4 million euros in 2019. The increase within five years is therefore around 28%.

Third-party funding is money that is available to universities in addition to regular budget funds. The vast majority of these funds are used to finance research projects, while a small proportion is used to finance temporary projects, for example in teaching or knowledge transfer. In addition to public institutions such as the German Research Foundation (DFG) or federal ministries, donors include companies, foundations and other institutions.

If funding for knowledge transfer projects, stays abroad and the like are deducted, research funding in the narrower sense amounted to 74.2 million euros (previous year: 71.1 million euros). As in previous years, the largest donor was the federal government with around 34.6 million euros. The DFG transferred 15.5 million euros. The largest single project in 2024 was the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Center ELCH in Physics on the Chirality of Molecules (2.7 million euros). The Faculty with the highest amount of third-party funding was the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (14.5 million euros), followed by the Faculties of Ecological Agricultural Sciences (13.7 million euros) and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (10.5 million euros).

The Vice President for Research, Prof. Dr. Michael Wachendorf, called it "pleasing that almost all subjects are enjoying increasing success in the tough competition for research funding. This testifies to the high quality of research at our university and creates additional attractive employment and qualification opportunities in current research fields."

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