What should third-party funding of research look like? How well do the grant programmes offered by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) match the needs of researchers? Which areas should the DFG especially advocate in the interest of the scientific community, and how does the community rate these activities? These and many other questions are answered by the study “Researcher Survey 2010: Research Conditions for Professors at German Universities”, which was conducted by the Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ) on behalf of the DFG. This Infobrief takes a look at some of its key findings.

With one of its oldest grant programmes, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) supports a cooperative system for providing science and academia with specialised literature: the system of Special Subject Collections (Sondersammelgebiete, SSG) in research libraries. The changes in the information world caused by the digital revolution demand adaptations that affect the entire library system. Along with that, researchers’ working methods and their expectations of an optimal information infrastructure have changed significantly. The DFG has therefore commissioned an evaluation study to assess the performance of the SSG system in terms of the scientific community’s needs and to identity opportunities for development. Special attention was given to the role of digital media.

Doctorate, highly qualified and eager to do research — but not yet permanently employed at a research institution: the typical applicant profile for Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators. This Infobrief provides some statistics on Temporary Positions for Principal Investigators, highlighting the statistical profile of the scientists and researchers who take advantage of this grant programme.

Less than five years after its introduction, the DFG has already awarded more than 100 Heisenberg professorships. On this occasion, this infobrief provides some key information on the statistical profile of the researchers who are funded with a Heisenberg professorship. Special attention is given here to the "DFG biography" of the funding recipients.

The study “Female Scientists in the DFG 2005 to 2008” focuses on the overall numbers and success rates of female researchers applying for funding to the DFG. The Infobrief 1/2010 summarizes the most important findings of this DFG-commissioned study by Thomas Hinz and Katrin Auspurg (University of Constance).

Since the option was introduced in 1999 to apply for Collaborative Research Centres involving two or three universities at multiple locations, more and more universities have taken advantage of it. Transregional Collaborative Research Centres have found their place in the DFG funding portfolio. Ten years later, a look back: Did the expansion of the Collaborative Research Centre programme live up to its promise? This Infobrief presents some of the results of the evaluation.

Since the Emmy Noether Programme was launched in 1999, more than 500 young researchers have benefited from the opportunity to head their own independent junior research group. The Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ) has now conducted the first comprehensive evaluation of the programme's success: Does it reach the target group toward whom the grants are geared? Has it improved the grant recipients' working conditions? Do Emmy Noether alumni have better career opportunities? This newsletter presents some of the results of the evaluation.

In 2003 the DFG completely reformed its review system. Under the new model, elected review board members provide evaluations and quality assurance for the review process, and thereby supply a basis for the DFG’s funding decisions. In a survey by the Institute for Research Information and Quality Assurance (iFQ), review board members of the first term (2004 – 2007) have now given their opinions on key aspects of the reform: How do they rate the new system? Has the reform met its objectives? How do individual review boards operate internally? How do they perceive the peer-review system in general? Where do they see room for improvement? The iFQ study gives comprehensive answers to these questions. This newsletter presents some of its findings.

How often do female researchers submit funding proposals to the DFG, and what are their chances of success? Do men and women have dissimilar ways of planning their career paths? Do they assess their career chances differently? Are there differences in the proportion of male and female researchers participating in the DFG's review process? These and other questions are the subject of a study commissioned by the DFG and carried out by the University of Konstanz. This Infobrief presents selected findings.

This analysis focuses on proposals submitted by junior professors to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG). It also looks at the question of whether, and to what extent, the success rate of the proposals differs relative to other applicants and between subjects. To introduce the survey, various statistical analyses on the junior professorship scheme, based on unpublished data collected by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), are presented.

After signing the "Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Scientific Knowledge”, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) commissioned a study on the major factors that determine publication behaviour and information acquisition across scientific disciplines. The study aimed at providing the DFG with empirical data that could be used to improve its funding programmes. This newsletter reports on the study’s main results.

In a large-scale study, a team of researchers led by Jürgen Enders, Twente University (The Netherlands), surveyed over 1,400 former DFG fellows about their experiences during their fellowships and their subsequent career development. This issue of the DFG infobrief presents some of the key findings.