Niedersachsen Hochschulforschung

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Public-sector research in Germany is mainly performed either at (public) universities or independent research institutes, whereby most of the latter ones belong to the five German research organisations (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft and Leibniz-Gemeinschaft). The joint financing of the German research organisations was part of an earlier project (“Niedersachsen Forschungsförderung”, 2004-0305). This operation focuses exclusively on research at Lower Saxony’s public universities. The state maintains 15 public universities and 5 universities of applied sciences. As professional staff at German public universities combines teaching obligations with research activities, it is conservatively assumed that up to 40% of their working time is devoted to research.