Developing North Rhine-Westphalia as a top-tier location for science and research is a task that the state is jointly taking on with the universities and research institutions. Basic research and applied R&D are on an equal footing, as both contribute to scientific knowledge gain and to the innovative strength of the state. To boost independent research into fields of the future at institutes, universities and universities of applied sciences, North Rhine-Westphalia has implemented specific open-topic funding measures along with funding measures for selected research fields and issues.
With 67 universities, around 770,000 students and more than 50 non-university research institutions, North Rhine-Westphalia has the densest science and research landscape in Europe. In addition, there are around 100 research institutes located at the universities, as well as seven medical faculties and university medical centres.
Through higher education legislation that is committed to the guiding principle of university autonomy, the state is reinforcing the creative potential of the universities and thus creating an important prerequisite for successfully developing North Rhine-Westphalia as a key science location. In addition, North Rhine-Westphalia will give universities of applied sciences the opportunity to become even more involved in qualification programmes for emerging scientists and thus further develop their special potential.
In order to be able to contribute solutions to major societal challenges such as coping with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the energy transition, demographic change, future mobility and digitalisation, North Rhine-Westphalia’s research policy is geared towards specifically reinforcing the research priorities autonomously developed and profiled by the universities and research institutions. In this way, North-Rhine Westphalia is particularly supporting universities and research institutions in their role as catalysts for the development of solutions to these challenges. In addition to the natural and engineering sciences, selected research fields and issues in other areas such as the humanities, social sciences and cultural sciences are also provided with funding support.
For North Rhine-Westphalia, a high degree of integrability in the funding programmes of the Federal Government and the European Union is of particular importance. That is why the state supports the universities and research institutions as part of a reliable co-financing strategy.
As part of its mainstay for successful innovation funding, North Rhine-Westphalia will use the 2021–2027 EU Structural Funds period in line with the goals of European regional policy and the European Research Agenda to advance the strengths of the location, boost cooperation and knowledge transfer from universities and research institutions to companies, enhance regional innovation ecosystems and ensure the supply of skilled workers, not least in key enabling technologies.
At the same time, through further calls for open-topic funding, the state will continue to provide scope for research in all fields of science.