10. September 2009
The University of Cologne ranked much higher in DFG Funding Ranking
DFG Funding Ranking confirms that research is thriving in North Rhein-Westphalia (NRW)
The University of Cologne has a much higher ranking in the current DFG Funding Ranking than in previous years.The German Research Foundation's Ranking is an overview of the distribution of awards to universities and non-university research institutions. Since the last ranking in 2006, the University of Cologne has climbed seven places and is now ranked 11. The Universityof Cologne and the University Hospital of Cologne has raised 126.4 million Euro of funding over the last three years.
Subjects such as non-European languages and cultures, astrophysics, biology, geography, media studies as well as statistical physics were particularly successful. In the ranking of the federal state of North Rhein-Westphalia (NRW), the University of Cologne is ranked overall second behind RWTH Aachen University and is actually the leader in many categories. This means that that NRW is one of the best federal states in Germany for research. The universities of the ABC-Initiative, Aachen, Bonn and Cologne, together with the Forschungszentrum Jülich received "550 millions of funding. Rector Axel Freimuth was delighted with the results: "This ranking confirms just how well our university is doing."
The DFG Funding Ranking has been published every three years since 1996. The current ranking is far more detailed than previous rankings. The focus has once again been on DFG grants, which provide over two billion Euros for research annually. In addition to this there is information on grants and funding for ministries, federations, other funding bodies as well as EU funding - and, for the first time, information on funding for the European Research Council, which was set up in 2007. The newest DFG-Ranking covers almost 90% of all third-party funding raised in the last three years.
