Third-party funding RUB ranks highly in chemistry and civil engineering
The German Research Foundation has released the Funding Atlas 2018. When compared to the previous report, the Bochum-based university has significantly improved its performance in many of its main research disciplines.
In the Funding Atlas 2018, published by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) is top tier in the disciplines chemistry and civil & environmental engineering. In the field of material science and engineering technology, RUB ranks among the top ten universities; moreover, it has soared to top positions in the three disciplines electrical engineering, computer science and system technology. In the interdisciplinary comparison, Ruhr-Universität improved its performance especially in the area of funding provided by the European Research Council ERC.
RUB’s long-term outlook for the funding of collaborative research centres is very positive, too: the university excels among German higher-education institutions in terms of research expertise spanning the full breadth and width of natural and engineering sciences, through life sciences, up to humanities and social sciences. Since the inception of this particular funding instrument, 26 collaborative research centres have been active at Ruhr-Universität.
The Funding Atlas was published by DFG on July 5, 2018. It contains key figures relating to publicly funded research in Germany. The eights edition covers the period from 2014 to 2016. The complete document is available for download at the DFG website.
Most significant increase at RUB is in the field of chemistry
In the field of chemistry, RUB is the institution where the number of DFG-approved funding has increased most significantly when compared with the previous report. In the Funding Atlas 2015, the university in Bochum ranked sixth, with a funding volume of 14.3 million euros in total; in the current edition, it comes second, boasting a funding volume of 20.5 million euros. Since 2012, the cluster of excellence “Ruhr Explores Solvation” has been incorporated in this field, which meanwhile has become one of University Alliance Ruhr’s flagship programmes.
Front runner in the field of civil & environmental engineering and architecture
Just like in the previous report, in the current Funding Atlas, too, RUB leads the league table of the highest number of DFG approvals in the field civil & environmental engineering and architecture. In this field, the volume of funding acquired by Bochum-based researchers in the period between 2014 and 2016 amounted 10 million euros. Compared with the Funding Atlas 2015, this signified an increase by approximately one million euros.
In the field of material science and engineering technology – likewise a joint flagship programme of the three universities in the Ruhr area – RUB has remained constant, ranking sixth.
The fact that IT research has played a growing role at RUB is reflected in the Funding Atlas 2018 in the data collected for the years 2015 and 2016. In the 2015 league table of the highest DFG approvals in the field of computer science, system technology and electrical engineering, Ruhr-Universität did not even rank among the top 20 universities; in the current league table, it is number 15.
Funding by the European Research Council
Compared to the previous reporting period, Ruhr-Universität has improved its performance with regard to funding by the European Research Council. The Funding Atlas lists higher education institutions that were most frequently chosen by ERC grantees; interdisciplinary comparison places RUB at number eight. In the Funding Atlas 2015, Ruhr-Universität did not even rank among the top 20.
Currently, RUB holds three ERC Advanced Grants in the fields solvation research, IT security and plant physiology, in addition to three Consolidator Grants as well as five Starting Grants and a joint Starting Grant.
University Alliance Ruhr: fourth-largest research region
The Funding Atlas 2018, moreover, proves that the Ruhr area is one of Germany’s largest and most powerful research regions: with DFG funding amounting to 327 million in the period between 2014 and 2016, it ranked fourth in Germany and was outranked only by Berlin, Munich and the Lower Neckar region. More than 90 per cent of the funds have been allocated to the three partners collaborating under the umbrella of University Alliance Ruhr: Ruhr-Universität Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and University of Duisburg-Essen.