External Funding of Research
The outstandingly high quality of research “made in Bremen” is underscored by the large share of research conducted at the University of Bremen which is financed from third-party sources. In 2009, researchers at the University of Bremen acquired external funding in an amount of around 86 million euros. Almost half of this sum came from the German Research Foundation (DFG). Altogether, external funding accounts for about a third of the University’s entire budget. This is the second highest ratio between external funding and overall university budget in the whole of Germany.
The University of Bremen’s remarkable success in this area does not stop at the excellence cluster and the two graduate schools funded within the context of the Excellence Initiative. In addition to the several projects and collaborative research centers supported by the German Research Foundation, there are many other projects financed by the European Union, the Federal Government, different foundations, and the enterprise sector.
Naturally, the amount of external funding cannot serve as sole indicator for the evaluation of research. Nevertheless, the greater part of funding from external sources ― and in the case of DFG, all of it ― is only approved following peer review: Expert opinions with regard to originality and feasibility are therefore top-priority considerations which always form the basis for the approval of funding. Besides numerous publications in high-ranking journals and other research results, Bremen University can therefore confidently interpret its share of third-party funding as an objective evaluation of the high quality of its research.
More and More Complex – But Still Safe
Today, modern technological systems are all around us. This goes for MP3 players, smart phones and portable computers – as well as sophisticated computer-aided applications in medical technology, automobiles, and the attitude control of satellites: “deep inside” you will find highly complex computer chips and electronic circuits performing functions at the speed of light. The development of software is similar to that of hardware: here, millions of lines of code have to be processed in order to guarantee that products function smoothly. How can we be sure that all parts of these incredibly complex and complicated systems continue to function correctly? How is it possible to test products with such inconceivably large combinations of different interactions? Questions like these occupy the computer scientists working in the Group of Computer Architecture at the University of Bremen – and they are really good at coming up with the right answers. More[PDF] (441 KB)
