DFG Funding Atlas Recognizes RWTH's Good Performance in Research

University enjoys top position in engineering once again.

The latest edition of the Funding Atlas of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft – DFG for short or German Research Foundation in English – once again documents RWTH’s research power. In addition to information on science funding and research, the publication also contains rankings on the amount of DFG approvals. In the three years considered in the Funding Atlas: 2017 to 2019, RWTH received a total of 312.8 million euros in project funding – 31.8 million euros more than in the previous period.

A particularly large amount of third-party funding from Germany's most important research funding bodies was allocated to RWTH's engineering sciences once again. The DFG provided 152.5 million euros over the three years – almost ten percent of its total funding in this subject area. The University’s clear lead, with an acquisition of 52 million euros more than the second-placed university, underlines RWTH’s top position in the engineering sciences. A similar pattern can be seen in the funding of engineering sciences provided by the AiF, the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations. RWTH received almost 50 million euros from this funding body from 2017 to 2019, almost twice as much as second-placed TU Dresden with 26.2 million.

Life sciences at RWTH were also recognized by the DFG for their impressive research activities. With funding to the sum of 52.9 million euros from 2017 to 2019, they record an increase of 61 percent. The natural sciences also received a considerable funding sum from the DFG from 2017 to 2019. With 15.5 million euros in chemistry and 8.6 million euros in mathematics, RWTH is in the top ten of German universities when it comes to the acquisition of DFG funding in these two subject areas.