Germany

The federal nature of the German system implies the division of roles in education and research between the Federal and the Länder (federal state) Governments. The latter has the sovereignty for culture, which includes education and science. Universities are, thus, within the sovereignty of the Länder, which is responsible for the core funding and the human resources of the Universities. In addition, Universities also have a share in research funding. The Federal Government is responsible for research that is of national interest or in strategic fields.

It applies, in conjunction with the Länder, a combination of targeted project funding and institutional funding of large research organisations.

Scientific Institutions

There are 19 Universities with departments active in Astronomy and Astrophysics, including a private one, the International University Bremen (IUB).

The Max-Planck Gesellschaft (Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, MPG) is an independent, non-profit research organisation. There are eight Max-Planck Institutes active in astronomy and astrophysics. The MPG has its own budget, which is directly provided by the BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung, Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and the Länder to the main MPG society, with a 50%-50% financing shares, and the institutes compete for the funding. Funds are allocated directly to the directors of the Max-Planck Instituts who are hence responsible for their use.

The Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz e.V. (Leibniz Foundation, WGL) is a scientific organis ation comprised of 84 non-university research institutes and service facilities. Among these are two astronomy and astrophysics devoted institutes, the Astrophysikalisches Institut Potsdam (AIP) and Kiepenheuer-Institut für Sonnenphysik (KIS).

The Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt, (German Aerospace Center, DLR) is Germany's national research centre for aeronautics and space. As Germany's s pace a gency, the DLR acts on behalf of the German Federal Government for the forward planning and implementation of the German space programme as well as international representation of Germany's interests. It performs its activities on an independent strategic planning by a programme commission for space science with representatives also from science. There are programme boards for extraterrestrial science, earth observation, as well as a referee board for the evaluation of project proposals.

The Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren (Helmholtz Association, HGF) is a community of 15 scientific-technical and biological-medical research centres. In the field of planetary science, there is one Helmholtz Centre, the Institut für Planetenforschung, which is part of Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt (DLR), located in Berlin-Adlershof. In the field of astroparticle physics, there are research groups at two Helmholtz Centres, namely at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY in Hamburg and at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (FZK).

Funding

As the largest single research funding agency, the BMBF supports research by funding basic research and the respective organiz ations, key technologies and prevention research jointly with the Länder. Due to constitutional constraints, project funding by the BMBF has the pre-condition of a superior federal interest which justifies federal funding. Typically, in the field of astronomy this is the case for large international infrastructures with a major financial contribution by the BMBF.

In the institutional funding scheme MPG and WGL are jointly funded by the Federal Government and the Länder with shares of 50% and 50%, and HGF with a 90:10 ratio, respectively.

BMBF's support is focused on large-scale research, of supra-regional, international or fundamental significance. The focus of BMBF support is on physics, astrophysics and astronomy as well as on selected research topics requiring special large-scale equipment including astrophysics and astroparticle physics. The co-action of research groups and national or international large facilities is supported through the funding scheme called “Projektförderung”. Funding is available primarily for Universities in order to enable research by university groups using large facilities. Research Institutes like Max Planck Institutes and Helmholtz Centres are eligible for this funding scheme only with strong restrictions. BMBF issues strategic guidelines for the usage of these funds (e.g. support for VLT instruments). For the funding period 2005-2008 it allocated 3.5 M€/year for astroparticle physics and 3.0 M€/year for astrophysics. BMBF funds are granted as three-year contracts. Calls are open every three years.

PT-DESY (Projektträger DESY) acts on behalf of BMBF and is authorised by the BMBF to implement a call dedicated to the funding of astrophysical and astroparticle research programs related to ground-based large facilities, which forms one joint funding programme section.

The DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, German Research Foundation) is the central, self-governing research-funding organiz ation that promotes research at Universities and other Research Institutions in Germany, serving all branches of science and the humanities. The Federal Government and the Länder jointly finance the budget of the DFG with shares of 58% and 42%, respectively. Funds are dedicated to individual or coordinated research programs, but not to infrastructures. The main evaluation criterion is scientific excellence, with no a-priori allocation planning to the different disciplines or strategic guidelines. DFG issues a wide variety of funds, ranging from small programs for single scientists to large programs among several coordinated institutions.

DLR funds science projects at Max-Planck institutes, universities, WGL institutes and industrial activities with a budget of about 30 M€ per year presently. Funding includes the scientific usage of data from space missions, the development and construction of components, in particular scientific instruments, and even of entire satellites.

The Länder funds basic research at Universities, and on specific scientific projects. They also co-fund Research Institutions together with the Federal Government.

Personel

Research staff positions in Universities and Research Institutes include Full Professors/Research Managers, Associate Professors, Researchers, and temporary positions partly financed by third party funds. Contrary to regular professorships, Junior Professors hold non-permanent positions, limited to 6 years, which under certain conditions can be tenure-track. Universities and Research Institutes offer post-doc positions with and without direct links to specific projects. Ph.D. degrees are granted by Universities, which select students through a competitive evaluation procedure.