Research at Universities of Applied Sciences

 Representatives of Germany’s universities of applied sciences (UAS) were pleased to hear Federal Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger and State Minister Markus Blume speak of the importance of the applied research and transfer developments taking place at universities of applied sciences at the Joint Science Conference (GWK). They also stated that they welcome the decision of the Joint Conference of the Federal and State Ministries of Science to continue the “Research at Universities of Applied Sciences” programme, which for the first time also has Federal States participating. As a result, up to € 445 million will be made available for the programme by the Federal Government over the next seven years, alongside a contribution of € 83 million from the Federal States. Nevertheless, the total investment volume remains well below the € 150 million per year hoped for by the universities of applied sciences, meaning that they will not be able to take full advantage of the enormous potential in application-oriented research for finding solutions to today’s biggest socio-economic challenges. In future, universities of applied sciences will be putting their hopes on the mutually reinforcing effect of applied research through the funding of the “Research at Universities of Applied Sciences” programme and the separate transfer funding by the Germany Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI), which, once established, will be aiming to meet the needs of Germany’s universities of applied sciences in particular.