Programme evaluations

In 2001, the WR recommended to the Helmholtz Association (HGF) and the funding agencies the model of programme-oriented funding (POF), which is still practised today and ties part of the resources to competition across centres. In 2015, this path was reaffirmed; in addition, indications were given on how the HGF could further optimise its internal decision-making structures and performance references to other sectors in the research system:

Recommendations for the Further Development of Programme-oriented Funding in the Helmholtz Association, 2015 (German version only)
Empfehlungen zur Weiterentwicklung der Programmorientierten Förderung der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft (Drs. 4900-15), Oktober 2015

An implementation agreement of the Joint Science ­Conference (GWK) provides for the WR to comment on the implementation of the Academies’ Programme at regular intervals. The programme, which is financed by the federal and state governments and implemented by the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, promotes ­long-term research projects. After 2004 and 2009, the WR again examined the function, performance and funding of this programme in 2020.

With the Hessian “State Offensive for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence” (LOEWE), the WR has evaluated a state research funding programme for the first time. LOEWE was launched by the state of Hesse in 2008 and has a programme architecture in which joint research projects by universities, non-university institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are funded specifically:

Recommendations on the Hessian research funding programme LOEWE (State Offensive for the Development of Scientific and Economic Excellence), 2013
Stellungnahme zum hessischen Forschungsförderprogramm LOEWE (Landesoffensive zur Entwicklung wissenschaftlich-ökonomischer Exzellenz) (Drs. 3192-13), Juli 2013