University research is predominantly financed by third-party funding from research communities, foundations, federal and state ministries, either directly or through funding organisations such as the Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF), the European Union or industry.
In this sense, the acquisition of third-party funding by professors at a university is often emphasised by universities and universities of applied sciences as a performance criterion.
According to the Federal Statistical Office, the Aachen University of Technology (RWTH Aachen) received a total of 294 million euros in third-party funding in 2017, more than any other German university. According to the figures, the professors of RWTH Aachen University raised an average of 871,300 euros. Medical institutions and health sciences were not included in the data for better comparability [1].
The University of Paderborn points out in its report comparable for the year 2017
50.4 million euros in third-party funding [2]. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering highlights a total of 13.5 million euros as comparable data and 770,383 euros as an average for all professors in terms of third-party funding raised [3].
In comparison, the Laboratory of Materials and Joining Technology (LWF) raised 3.0 million euros in third-party funding in 2017, which is well above the average for third-party funding at the RWTH Aachen and the University of Paderborn or the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering.
The high funding to finance the research of the LWF is due to the outstanding research profile of the LWF in the fields of new and further development of mechanical, adhesive, thermal and hybrid joining techniques for joining high-performance materials in hybrid systems, as well as in the field of method development for the joinability in innovative production chains of lightweight construction, in which the LWF has achieved a unique selling point far beyond national borders.
Sources
[1] Aachen streicht wieder die meisten Drittmittel ein. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14.09.2019, Nr. 214, S. C3.
[2] Kurzportrait der Universität. [online], 2019, URL: https://www.uni-paderborn.de/fileadmin/kurzportraet/Kurzportraet__2019.pdf, Universität Paderborn, abgerufen am 16.10.2019
[3] Jahresbericht 2017. [online], 2017, URL: https://mb.uni-paderborn.de/fileadmin/fakultaet/Infomaterial/Jahresberichte/UPB_JB2017_Maschinenbau_WEB.pdf, Fakultät für Maschinenbau, Universität Paderborn, abgerufen am 16.10.2019