JGU leads the list of higher education institutions with the highest DFG awards for 2014 to 2016 / Well ahead in funding per capita and in the discipline of physics
5 July 2018
In the 2018 DFG Funding Atlas published today by the German Research Foundation (DFG), Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) tops the rankings in the natural sciences, ahead of the universities of Hamburg and Bonn. JGU received the highest volume of DFG funding in the natural sciences – some EUR 70 million in total – in the period 2014 to 2016, which is more than any other German university. Compared to the previous three years, this represents an increase of more than 80 percent and an improvement of 13 positions in the national ranking. Remarkably, JGU leads by an even greater margin in the ranking based on funds allocated per researcher, in this case ahead of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. According to the 2018 Funding Atlas, JGU ranks among the institutions with an overall profile that places a strong focus on the natural sciences.
Physics at Mainz University has a large share in this success, namely with its PRISMA Cluster of Excellence and a DFG-funded collaborative research center (CRC) in the field of Particles, Nuclei and Fields as well as another CRC in the field of Condensed Matter Physics. Both research areas of JGU Physics are explicitly named in the 2018 Funding Atlas. In the field of physics alone JGU is leading nationwide by a significantly greater margin than in the natural sciences as a whole. Mainz University also achieved an outstanding placement in mathematics, which is ranked 9th.
"We are proud of the fact that JGU is at the top of all German universities in the natural sciences. This excellent success is affirmation of our great achievements, particularly those of our physicists and mathematicians in the key profile areas of our university," said Professor Georg Krausch, President of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. "This encourages us to persist with our profile-forming strategy and the associated expansion of cutting-edge university-based research based on specific projects." The success achieved by JGU in acquiring DFG funding is confirmed by the figures for European Research Council (ERC) funding in the years 2014 to 2016, which are also listed in the 2018 Funding Atlas. With four ERC grants in the natural sciences, JGU is in the leading group here as well. Only Heidelberg University with seven ERC grants and the University of Cologne and the Technical University of Munich with five ERC grants each were able to win more funding for top researchers.
JGU has also proved successful in the humanities and social sciences, where it improved its ranking by five places to 17th. The humanities even managed a solid 13th place. At a total of almost EUR 22 million in funding from 2014 to 2016, DFG funding for Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz was some EUR 4 million higher than in the previous three years. "Given our financial position, which is below the national average, this is a considerable achievement," concluded Krausch.