“We are proud of our researchers, to whom we owe this outstanding achievement,” say the Rector of the University of Greifswald, Professor Katharina Riedel, and the Scientific Director of University Medicine Greifswald, Professor Karlhans Endlich. The University’s external funding expenditure rose by around 6.5 million euros, or approximately 23 per cent, compared with 2024. The increase is spread across a wide range of disciplines and cannot be attributed to individual large-scale projects. The Federal Government, the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the European Union provided around 85 per cent of the funds.
University Medicine also continued its progressive increase in expenditure. “We have now spent more than 30 million euros in external funding every year for several years in succession. Last year, the figure amounted to 37.8 million euros,” says Professor Karlhans Endlich. “Of course, our goal is to exceed the 40-million-euro freshhold. It is an important tool for us to be able to conduct more research.” In 2025, the European Union and the German Research Foundation (DFG) together provided a total of 14.3 million euros, with both institutions contributing approximately equal shares.
External funding does not come from the conventional state budget. It is usually secured by researchers and lecturers in highly competitive processes. Funding bodies include the German Research Foundation (DFG), federal and state ministries, the European Union, foundations, and other public and private institutions.
External funding creates jobs: The University of Greifswald primarily uses external funding to finance research staff. In 2025, around 19.5 million euros helped to finance staff positions, particularly researchers at the early stages of their careers. Around 370 early-career researchers were employed in externally funded projects last year. External funding also secures numerous additional jobs at University Medicine: an average of 497 staff members at UMG were financed via external funding in 2025.
External funding strengthens the research and teaching infrastructure: In addition, the secured funds enable important research and teaching projects as well as investments in infrastructure. At the University, these include the Collaborative Research Centres/Transregios ‘CONCENTRATE’ and ‘WETSCAPES 2.0’ as well as the teaching projects QLeVer and ConFuture. At University Medicine, new research laboratories have been equipped for the Clinic and Outpatient Clinic for Ear, Nose and Throat Diseases and for the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine. In addition, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern’s first hypoxia laboratory is being set up at the Institute of Physiology.
“These record figures demonstrate the potential of our location as a centre of science and research,” says Professor Katharina Riedel. “Those who manage to successfully secure external funding today lay the foundations for excellent research, high-quality teaching and for the next generation of scientists.”
Contact at the University of Greifswald
University Communications
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Tel: +49 3834 420 1150
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Contact at University Medicine Greifswald
Communications and Marketing Office
Hauke Meier
Walther-Rathenau-Straße 46, 17475 Greifswald
Tel.: +49 3834 86 6521
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