ZEW Annual Report 2005 Published

In spite of the difficult national and international environment, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, was able to continue its success story. According to the newly published Annual Report 2005 of the economic research institute, ZEW increased its third-party funding to EUR 5.2 million.

"The EU, federal ministries, foundations, companies and associations have particularly contributed to this growth," explains Thomas Kohl, ZEW Director of Business and Administration.

The current annual report further illustrates that ZEW's five Research Departments and Research Groups successfully worked on 91 projects last year. The great scientific quality of these projects is reflected in the high number of publications by ZEW researchers published in renowned economic journals. In the last business year, this number amounted to a total of 39 contributions. Furthermore, ZEW researchers held 289 lectures at national and international conferences last year, which shows that ZEW has taken on a leading position among Germany’s economic research institutes. "In order to maintain these high standards, ZEW successfully supports the scientific qualification of its employees. In 2005, twelve young economists gained a doctorate, some of them received the top score of summa cum laude, and one ZEW researcher successfully completed his habilitation," stresses ZEW President Professor Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Franz.

ZEW's enhanced integration into international EU projects and the appointment of ZEW employees to European and non-European expert commissions for policy advice purposes highlight the fact that ZEW significantly intensified its international orientation. The International Monetary Fund, the US Department of the Treasury and American investment banks, for instance, consider ZEW an important source of information for decision making.

The annual report furthermore contains information on numerous scientific conferences and workshops hosted by ZEW in the past year as well as details on public events with renowned speakers from the world of politics and business organised as part of the lecture series "First-Hand Information on Economic Policy" and the ZEW Economic Forum. The working reports by ZEW's research departments provide detailed information about their research activities.