The DFG will use this money, inter alia, to ensure that the chances of success for applicants in the Individual Grants Programme, the central form of research funding provided by the DFG, will not decrease. With the assurance of a budget increase this year and professed intentions of the federal government that such rises will also be implemented in the coming years, the DFG can now increase the amount of approvals for general research funding by more than ten percent over the previous year, to € 780 million.
Overall, the DFG has spent more money during the past several years on the Individual Grants Programme, for example to finance individual projects, fellowships and Research Units. In 2003 it invested € 516 million in the Individual Grants Programme, following € 504 million in 2002 and € 469 million in 2001. The DFG has thus once again, as was the case in previous years, met its declared aim of maintaining spending on the Individual Grants Programme at over 40 percent. This also applies to the half-year figures as of 30 June 2004.
The reason the funding rate in the Individual Grants Programme has fallen from 40 percent to 35 percent is due to a ten percent rise in the application volume for that period.