Fraunhofer Society's earned income rises to 63 percent

“Although there was no improvement in the consistently difficult situation for contract research in Germany last year, we still managed to reach our ambitious goals,” commented Dr. Alfred Gossner, Senior Vice President Finance and Controlling of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, on presenting the net result for 2004 at the beginning of May. “This was only possible because our institutes hold a strongly competitive position and were able to adapt very quickly to the changed market conditions.” The € 21 million increase in the operational budget to a total of € 1,069 billion can mainly be accounted for by the recovery of previous years’ structural investments. The Fraunhofer institutes were able to increase their industrial earnings by € 30 million to a total of € 317 million, thus compensating for the decline in project funding from the federal and Länder governments.

The Executive Board of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is particularly proud of having strengthened its bonds of cooperation with industry, given that German companies had cut back spending on external research and development work in the year under review. That the Fraunhofer institutes should have been so successful in the face of these adverse conditions is a testimony to their outstanding competitive ability. 34 percent of contract research earnings are now derived from industry. All in all – counting an additional 29 percent in project funding received from government and other sponsors – these sources now account for 63 percent of contract research earnings. This achievement is all the more remarkable in view of the fact that project funding awarded to the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft by the federal and Länder governments dropped by € 31 million in 2004. However, greater efforts to obtain funding from the European Union and intensified collaboration with industry more than compensated for this decline. There remains uncertainty as to the level of future public-sector funding, with no guarantee even for the promised three-percent increase in institutional or basic funding. This explains the slight decrease in the number of staff, from 12,700 to the present level of 12,400.

“More money does not automatically produce better results,” adds Professor Hans-Jörg Bullinger, President of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. “We need to work more efficiently as well. But if we want our country to remain at the cutting edge of technology, we will have to invest the same kind of money as our global competitors. It’s imperative that we meet the Lisbon target of investing three percent of Germany’s gross domestic product in research and development.”

Contact:

Dirk Artelt
Phone: +49 89 1205-3005
Fax: +49 89 1205-77-3005
dirk.artelt@zv.fraunhofer.de
Zentrale der Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft ZV
Hansastraße 27C
80686 München