Top Recipient of Public Funding

03 September 2015

Heidelberg University in second place in the Funding Atlas 2015 of the German Research Foundation (DFG)

In the ranking list of the 40 highest publicly funded universities in Germany, Heidelberg University is in second place with a total of 274.7 million euros in DFG funds. The results were published today in the Funding Atlas 2015 of the German Research Foundation. The DFG reports that either Ludwig Maximilian University of Munch or RWTH Aachen has always been the recipient of the most DFG funds since the first ranking in 1997. The current ranking places Ruperto Carola between continued first-place LMU in Munich (277.8 million euros in DFG funds) and third-placed RWTH Aachen (272.5 million euros).

Broken down by individual academic fields, Heidelberg University is in second place behind LMU Munich in the life sciences. In the humanities and social sciences, Ruperto Carola is ranked third and it is among the top ten in the natural sciences.

The new DFG Funding Atlas is now in its seventh triennial issue. Since 1997 the largest research funding organisation in Germany has released the report, subtitled “Key Figures Relating to Publicly Funded Research in Germany.”  The figures and data basis have been continually expanded along with the evaluation criteria. The Excellence Initiative is a key focus and was assessed much more comprehensively and in greater detail than in the 2012 atlas.