In 2023, a professor at the Technische Universität Ilmenau secured an average of €498,400 in third-party funding, compared to €332,200 on average for all universities in Germany – that’s a third more than the national average. This was announced by the Federal Statistical Office in its latest report. Third-party funding refers to the average income universities raise from public and private institutions in addition to their basic funding. This primarily includes money, often project-specific, provided by the German Research Foundation, the European Union, companies, or foundations.
With an average of €498,400 per professorship, TU Ilmenau ranks a very strong 14th out of over 100 universities in Germany. The institutions ahead of TU Ilmenau are almost all significantly larger and financially stronger universities. The top three universities in terms of third-party funding per professorship are RWTH Aachen, followed by TU Munich and the University of Stuttgart.
The president of TU Ilmenau, Professor Kai-Uwe Sattler, is pleased with the university’s strong position: "Our highly qualified researchers usually focus their expertise on future technologies in highly interdisciplinary research projects, many of which are now large-scale projects funded by the federal government, the European Union, and major funding institutions like the Carl Zeiss Foundation. At the same time, our professors face an unequal economic competition, as they must secure funds in a structurally weak region. This is why we are especially pleased with this result."
For 2024, TU Ilmenau expects third-party funding per professorship to reach at least €553,000. Once the new comparison statistics from the Federal Statistical Office are available in the following year, the university is likely to rank even higher in the national comparison.
Contact
Prof. Kai-Uwe Sattler
President
+49 3677 69-5001
praesident@tu-ilmenau.de
