FOREWORD

Committed to supporting international research projects and promoting the internationalisation of young researchers and scholars, the Universität Leipzig successfully participated in the "Doctorates at German Universities" programme run jointly by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the National Research Foundation (DFG). The successful launch of the International Graduate Programme "Transnationalisation and Regionalisation from the 18th Century to the Present" at the Centre for Advanced Studies in 2001 was followed by the inception of the Graduate Programme "Interdisciplinary Research at the Frontiers of Chemistry" at the Faculty of Chemistry and Mineralogy in the winter semester 2002/03. In addition to projects concerning basic research and environmental issues, this programme places its main emphasis on chemistry and life science, material science, and interfaces.

Setting a wider perspective, the Universität Leipzig has successfully contributed its high scientific competency to interdisciplinary networks in which partners from research, education, and business come together to define areas of innovation, develop marketing strategies, and realize projects that serve common interests.

One of those is the co-operative project "Learning Region Leipzig - A Changing Region - For a New Quality of Life in the Region". A regional consortium appointed the Universität Leipzig to manage this enterprise in which over 90 institutions and organisations (associations, foundations, businesses, initiatives as well as cultural, public, and educational institutions) and individuals work together to encourage non-academics from the Leipzig region to enrich their lives through education and learning, create educational activities in which life experience is taken into account and given room to develop according to individual needs, and promote the development of knowledge and competence.

Another instance of a mutually profitable co-operation between the Universität Leipzig and non-academic institutions is the participation in the network INNOCIS (sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of its programme "Innovative Regional Growth Centres"), where research institutions and businesses develop new flexible thin film solar cells. The Universität Leipzig is contributing five substantial sub-projects to this project.

Those and similar efforts were rewarded by a new record in the acquisition of external funding. The previous financial year already boasted an increase of over 30% to €43.6 million, and 2002 showed a further increase of 14% to €49.7 million. This was due to an above-average increase in acquisitions by the humanities and social sciences, as well as the successful promotion of new institutions like the Centre for Biotechnology and Biomedicine.

In the area of refereed public projects supported by the EU, the federal government, and the National Research Foundation (DFG), the proportion of external funding (relative to the total funds) increased from 52% in the previous year to 56%. A quarter of all funds come from the DFG, making it the single most important provider of external funds for the university. In the DFG-ranking, the Universität Leipzig moved from 40th place (for the period from 1991-95) to 38th place (1996-98) to its present position, 34th place (1999-2001).

External funding allows the university to hire the personnel (albeit on fixed-period contracts only) necessary to develop and maintain different research projects. The previous year already saw a 10% increase to 795 contracts, and in 2002, it was possible to increase the number of contracts by another 18% to 940.

Naturally, the quality of research can not and must not be rated solely on the basis of external funding, even if this is an important factor. The large variety of fields of research from the humanities to the social, natural, and medical sciences makes possible a combination of expertise that is unique in the Free State of Saxony. Using this potential by increasing efforts in such areas as Collaborative Research Centres and other interdisciplinary projects with a high public visibility is a major goal for the future.