Distribution of research funds in Germany: Only ten per cent of all third-party funding goes to universities of applied sciences 

Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in Germany have increased their commitment to research in recent years. However, they are clearly lagging behind universities when it comes to funding. Only ten per cent of all third-party funding awarded between 2021 and 2023 went to UAS. In addition to the federal government, their largest funding providers were the private sector and the EU. This is shown by an evaluation as part of the TDR4HAW project on transdisciplinary research at UAS (German abbreviation: HAW), which is being carried out by the CHE Centre for Higher Education together with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. 

The majority of external research funding goes to full universities 

Third-party funded research at universities of applied sciences (UAS) in Germany is still not particularly pronounced. Not even ten per cent of the third-party funding that flowed to German universities in 2021-2023 ended up at an UAS, with 90 per cent going to universities. 

There is also a major difference between the two types of university in relation to the number of students: With 88,000 euros per 100 students and year, UAS are on average well behind the universities with 540,000 euros per 100 students, which is partly due to particularly externally funded-intensive subjects such as medicine, which is offered exclusively at universities. However, there is also an area of overlap: a small proportion of UAS, particularly state universities, also manage to penetrate university regions with their third-party funding ratio. For 16 per cent of UAS, however, no third-party funding was recorded at all during the period under review. This is the result of an analysis by the CHE based on data from the Federal Statistical Office. 

Third-party funding is crucial for research at UAS 

So-called third-party funding is additional funding acquired by universities for research projects, for example from the federal government, industry or foundations. They provide information about the scope of research activities at universities.  

‘Third-party funding plays a central role in research at universities of applied sciences,’ says Cort-Denis Hachmeister. ‘It is precisely because of the largely absent mid-level faculty and the higher teaching load of professors that UAS are even more dependent on external funding than full universities if they also want to conduct research,’ says the expert for data analysis at the CHE Centre for Higher Education. 

The federal government and the private sector are the most important donors 

At 47%, the largest share of currently recorded UAS third-party funding comes from federal funds, followed by the private sector (13%), the EU and other international organisations (12%). 

Even if they only account for a small proportion of the universities’ third-party funding mix, municipalities play a special role, as the author of the DatenCHECK, Cort-Denis Hachmeister, notes: “Of the third-party funding that municipalities award to universities, 60 per cent goes to UAS. In this respect, municipalities obviously have a special partner in UAS if they promote research.” ‘Some of the federal funds are also used to finance application-oriented research projects together with partners such as municipalities or the private sector,’ continues Hachmeister.  

About the analysis: 

The DatenCHECK ‘Drittmittel an Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften (HAW)’ (‘Third-party funding at universities of applied sciences (UAS’)  provides an initial data analysis on the topic of transdisciplinary research at UAS and forms the basis for in-depth analyses. The analysis is part of the project „TDR4HAW. Transdisziplinäre Forschung an Hochschulen für angewandte Wissenschaften – Status quo und Potenziale eines schlafenden Riesen”, (‘Transdisciplinary research at universities of applied sciences – status quo and potential of a sleeping giant’), which the CHE is conducting together with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (FHP) and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE). The project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in the ‘Science and Higher Education Research’ funding line as part of the ‘Thematic, Personnel and International Expansion of Science and Higher Education Research (Module A)’ funding call under the reference 16RBM1010A.