ZEW Annual Report 2011 Published: ZEW Success Story Continues

In the business year 2011, the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) was able to significantly increase its overall returns by approx. 2.6 million euros to 18.2 million euros. In particular third-party funding contributed to this success with an increase of 2.1 million euros. This information is provided by the recently published institute's annual report.

With 8.4 million euros, third-party funds raised in national and international competition were considerably higher than the 2010 result of 6.3 million euros. Third-party funding hence makes up more than 40 per cent of ZEW's total budget. "ZEW was particularly successful in the competition for project grants awarded by the German government and federal state ministries as well as ministries from other countries. Altogether, they contribute 62.8 per cent of third-party funding", says ZEW President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Franz. "These results underline that national and international clients value ZEW’s excellence in policy advice as well as in research work." Other important third-party clients in 2011 include enterprises and associations (14.8 per cent), the European Commission (12.8 per cent), the German Research Foundation DFG (4.5 per cent) and other foundations (5.1 per cent). Altogether, 115 projects were completed for national and international clients last year.

In 2011, ZEW was able to significantly intensify research cooperation with partners from Europe and overseas. Especially the ZEW research programme "Strengthening Efficiency and Competitiveness in the European Knowledge Economies" (SEEK), funded by the state government of Baden-Württemberg, played a central role in expanding international networks since it fosters project level research cooperation as well as visiting researcher exchanges. In March 2011, the international SEEK kick-off conference entitled "Going for Smart Growth with Knowledge and Innovations" took place at ZEW.

Further international networking activities in 2011 brought about cooperation agreements between ZEW and the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States and the Wang Yang Institute for Studies in Economics at Xiamen University, China.

Numerous contributions of ZEW researchers in renowned research journals confirm the high quality of ZEW’s research in 2011. "Furthermore, 14 doctoral degrees were completed last year and contribute to ZEW’s fine track record. This shows that ZEW has successfully achieved one of its core objectives: the training of young economists", emphasises Thomas Kohl, ZEW Director of Business and Administration. Several dissertations were honoured with awards, such as the Constantin-von-Dietze-Preis presented by the University of Freiburg, or the Young Researcher Award presented by the Erich Gutenberg Society. In addition to that, two ZEW researchers were appointed to universitiy chairs and Prof. Dr. Andreas Löschel, head of the ZEW Research Department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management", was appointed chairman of the Expert Group for the Supervision of Germany’s Energy Transition.

The number of employees at ZEW rose to 183 towards the end of 2011. 120 of them are involved in research. With 45 per cent, the proportion of female employees at ZEW is noticeably high.

Furthermore, the new annual report contains information on the numerous economic conferences organised by ZEW in 2011 and on the institute’s public events with renowned speakers from the areas of politics and business. The working reports by ZEW’s research departments provide detailed information about their research activities.

For further information please contact

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