In 2011, the 17¹ Helmholtz centres received 2.203 billion euros in funding from the federal government and federal states. In 2012, funding will amount to 2.380 billion euros, representing an increase of 8 percent over fiscal 2011. In addition to institutional funding, the research centres raised 1.227 billion euros in third-party funds in 2011. As regards the third-party funding acquired through collaborations with industry, the association was particularly successful in application-oriented research fields. Its success can be taken as a clear sign of the attractiveness of Helmholtz research for industrial partners. In the area of basic research, a growing amount of funding has been acquired in competitions organised by the funding programmes of entities such as the EU, the German Research Foundation (DFG), and federal and regional ministries. The Helmholtz Association’s mission is to conduct high-level research that contributes to solving the major challenges and pressing problems of the day. To ensure that this mission is optimally fulfilled, the association has embraced scientific competition. Internally, this competition informs programmeoriented funding, the financing of investments in strategic expansion, and the instruments of the Initiative and Networking Fund. The scientific performance indicators compiled in the context of programme-oriented funding represent selected aspects of research that are characteristic of the association’s work.

Scientific Performance

Publications

• In 2011, 10,491 publications appeared in ISI-indexed scientific journals and a further 2,564 refereed publications appeared in other outlets.
• The number of ISI-indexed publications increased by 13 percent over the previous year and by a total of 36 percent over the past five years.

Collaborations

• In 2011, the Helmholtz centres participated in 5,490 scientific collaborations and 3,081 collaborations with industry. Due to the admission of the new Helmholtz member centre HZDR and a changed counting system, we are not including a chart of the collaborations over the past few years since the annual figures are not directly comparable.
• In 2011, 240 research projects took part in the coordinated funding programmes of the German Research Foundation (DFG), compared to 248 for 2010. As of 31 December 2011, 374 Helmholtz scientists held W2 or W3 professorships at universities, an increase of 17 percent over the previous year.

Third-party funding

• In 2011 the Helmholtz Association received approximately 134 million euros in EU funding, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year. This success has secured the association a leading position amongst German scientific organisations.
• In 2011, the association raised third-party funds of 1,227 million² euros, representing an increase of 19 percent over 2010, when it acquired 1,031 million euros in thirdparty funding.
• Over the past five years, third-party funding has grown more than twofold, or at an average annual rate of 12 percent.

Technology transfer

• A total of 347 patents were awarded in the reporting period, compared to an average of 385 for the previous years. The slight decline in patent applications in 2008 and 2009 is now being seen in the figures for 2011 due to the slow processing times at the patent offices. In 2010 the number of patent applications once again rose robustly.

• Over the last five years, the Helmholtz Association has launched 55 research spin-offs, including 14 in 2011. These figures demonstrate its solid performance in a competitive environment.

Staff

Scientific staff

In 2011 the Helmholtz Association had a total of 32,855 employees (2010: 30,995), of whom 11,121 were scientists (2010: 10,458), 6,062 were supervised PhD candidates (2010: 5,320) and 1,617 were trainees (2010: 1,627). A total of 14,055 employees (2010: 13,590) worked in technical and administrative fields.

Equal opportunity

In 2011 the share of female scientists remained constant at 24 percent; the percentage of young female scientists decreased in 2011 to 37 percent from 38 percent during the previous year. The proportion of women working in research management is continuing to grow at both the institutional and departmental levels. All told, the share of women currently holding managerial positions in research, administration and technical fields stands at 20 percent, compared to 19 percent for the previous year.

Young scientists

• In 2011, 6,062 doctoral candidates completed dissertations at the Helmholtz centres, supervised by their scientific staff. This marks a 14 percent increase over the 5,320 dissertations written in 2010. Over the past five years, the number of completed dissertations has increased by 47 percent or at an average rate of 10 percent per year.
• The ratio of core-financed scientists to PhD students is approximately 1 to 1. This ratio has increased by 19 percent over the past five years.

• A total of 1,829 post-doctoral candidates worked at the Helmholtz Association in 2011. Over the past five years, this number has increased by 25 percent (an average rate of 6 percent per year).
• In 2011, 18 Helmholtz scientists were awarded junior professorships. 
• Helmholtz centres currently work together with 75 DFG graduate schools. This represents a 53 percent increase over the previous year.
• Helmholtz centres are currently participating in 56 “ Marie Curie Actions” within the EU’s programme to promote young scientists. During the past five years there has been a 10 percent annual increase in the number of these grants.
• Over the past five years, the number of Helmholtz Young Investigators’ Groups, including the groups established by the centres themselves, has increased from 133 to 166. 
• In 2011, the Helmholtz Association provided vocational training for 1,617 trainees. The trainee-staff ratio was 6.0 percent (excluding doctoral candidates).
• With its 25 School Labs and the “Little Scientists' House” initiative, which caters to a network of more than 22,000 day-care centres, the Helmholtz Association is ensuring the long-term support of young researchers.

International exchange at the Helmholtz Association

The large number of guests who came to the research centres in 2010 to exchange ideas and work in the research facilities demonstrates the appeal that the centres continue to hold for foreign scientists. Around 6,300 scientists from around the world took advantage of the research opportunities at the Helmholtz centres – an 8 percent increase over the previous year.