Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) Competes Successfully for International Third-Party Research Funding

For the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), Mannheim, 2007 was a very successful year. Despite a tough national and international competition among economic research institutes for research contracts, ZEW was able to increase its third-party funding again, which now amounts to EUR 6.4 million.

Following the strong increase in 2006, the number of employees has grown again. Towards the end of 2007, a total of 156 employees worked at ZEW. “Due to the top qualifications of all employees ZEW was able not only to maintain its leading position among economic research institutes but also to strengthen its role in important research fields. In the areas of science and economic policy advice, ZEW is a very competent and well-respected institution and dialogue partner”, explain ZEW president Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Franz and Thomas Kohl, Director of Business and Administration.

Starting off with 15 employees in 1991, ZEW is now one of the leading economic research institutes in Europe. Thus, especially the number of scientists employed at ZEW has grown more than proportionally. At the end of 2007, 109 of altogether 156 employees at ZEW were academic staff. Scientists at ZEW publish in internationally renowned economic journals and attend numerous science conferences and congresses.

In the past business year 2007, ZEW competed successfully for economic research and consulting projects, especially in Germany and Europe. With EUR 6.4 million, the current volume of third-party funding has reached its highest level since the foundation of the institute in 1991. In 2007, it has risen by 2.8 percentage points compared with 2006 (2006: EUR 6.2 million). The European Union is ZEW’s largest client with a share of EUR 1.83 million in third-party funding. A remarkable achievement is the institute’s success regarding project applications within the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7), since the European competition for this research funding is especially tough. ZEW has thus proven the exceptionally high quality of its scientific research. In addition to the EU, ZEW’s large clients mainly include federal and state ministries. Another prime example of ZEW’s research quality is the funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG), which is based upon a rigorous evaluation procedure in order to ensure that the studies conducted are at the forefront of international research.

ZEW’s integration in the international research network is a major factor of its success. Important networking instruments are, among others, the ZEW Doctoral Studies Network and the ZEW Visiting Researchers Programme. ZEW Doctoral Studies Network is an international cooperation, linking ZEW with graduate programmes at the Universities of Konstanz, Mannheim, St. Gallen (CH), and Leuven (BE). Other universities will soon follow. In addition to the already existing doctoral programmes, ZEW DocNet provides further support for PhD candidates. The ZEW Visiting Researchers Programme helps intensifying ZEW’s cooperation with internationally renowned scientists. In 2008, for example, the US Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics, Professor James J. Heckman from the University of Chicago, will spend a short research stay at ZEW.

The events organised by ZEW also reflect its increasingly international focus. In 2007, ZEW organised 14 international scientific conferences and is now more present with lecture events in Brussels. As in previous years, training seminars for external experts and companies were very well-received in 2007. Around 1,200 participants registered for the 66 seminars organised by ZEW. Training programmes in financial market econometrics, which took place in Zurich, were very popular among the researchers targeted.

Contact

Thomas Kohl, Phone: +49 621/1235-111, E-mail: kohl@zew.de