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Finished funding lines

The need for reliable knowledge about processes of change in the science system and their effects on policy and practice has continued to grow in recent years. Nevertheless, the research situation, compared with the information needs of politics and science, is still inadequate. For this reason, the BMBF has been funding research projects in the field of higher education and science research since 2008.

Since the establishment of this funding priority, several funding lines have already been successfully completed. Their questions and objectives will continue to be available below.

Quantitative research on the science sector

The science sector has been acquiring great significance for more and more areas of our society. This makes it all the more important for the science system to be structured and funded as advantageously as possible. To an increasing degree, quality and productivity issues in science and research are being studied with the help of indicators that yield information about quality, the factors that define it and the factors that bring it about. One aim of the funding line "Quantitative research on the science sector" is to make even better use of such indicators' usefulness for research on the science system – and, in the process, to develop new indicators where appropriate. Quantitative research in this context is designed to improve our understanding of the science system's workings, structural dependencies and dynamics. It also considers the impacts of data-based evaluation of research.

Quality developments in science

The scientific system is traditionally attested to a strong performance and quality ethos. In addition to a rather personal understanding of quality, a primarily systemic concept of quality has been taken into account in recent years. In the meantime, this concept has determined the scientific reform discourse like no other. The critical reflection of these developments and the generation of empirically proven knowledge and impulses for the design of quality assurance concepts will be a superior topic in the BMBF's funding priority "Science and Higher Education Research" in the coming years.

Research in support of the Quality Pact for Teaching

The funding announcement "Research in support of the Quality Pact for Teaching" ("Begleitforschung zum Qualitätspakt Lehre") was published by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in October 2013. The announcement offers funding for research projects that focus on current issues in higher education studies and teaching and that, in such efforts, integrate programmes and measures developed in the projects of the Federal-Länder programme "Quality Pact for Teaching."

Competence modelling and competence-assessment

In the framework of the funding line "Competence modelling and competence-assessment instruments in the higher education sector – Validation and methodological innovations" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, existing models, and pertinent instruments, for assessment of competencies taught at higher education institutions are validated, and innovative measurement methods are developed. Special priority is placed on transfer of the resulting findings into higher education practice.

Research on young scientists and researchers

The importance of qualification of young scientists and researchers, for positions within and outside of the academic sector, has been growing. The funding line "Research on the career conditions and career development of young scientists and researchers" (FoWiN), of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), is designed to improve the information available on this topic.

Performance assessment in science

Projects in the framework of the BMBF funding line "Performance Assessment in Science" ("Leistungsbewertung in der Wissenschaft") study incentive systems and performance-assessment approaches that are oriented to research and/or teaching, or to other task areas such as the "third mission" of scientific institutions. Such studies also examine the ways in which such systems, approaches and areas function, and they produce findings that can help optimise management of the science sector.