The Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum für Informationstechnik Berlin (ZIB) finances its scientific work mainly out of three sources: the basic financial stock of the Federal State of Berlin, the raised third-party funds of public sponsors as well as funds of industrial cooperation. In 2010 the trend of further reduction of public financing and an over-proportional increase in third-party project allocations continued. Despite a difficult financial situation ZIB was able to acquire interesting research projects and thus remains a sought cooperation partner for large-scale and medium-sized innovative companies. 75 % of the scientific research work was financed by third-party funds.

Due to the increased share of third-party means in 2010, 28 extra persons were employed at ZIB compared to the year before. It becomes more and more difficult to attract excellent scientists for the location Berlin, because on the one hand there are less well-trained mathematicians and computer scientists available and on the other hand the salaries for the employees of the public sector in Berlin are - even after the TV-L tariff adjustment - still clearly lower than those in the other federal states.

ZIB was able to compensate this competitive disadvantage by its good reputation in the community, by challenging projects, by high-quality supervision and excellent team-work, which offers young scientists a stepping stone for their careers in the research sector as well as in industry. The extension of the high-performance computer HLRNII was completed. The long-term data storage of the Institute was extended and offered as top-quality service to Berlin’s scientific institutions. Numerous new research cooperation works in this field were completed. In 2010 in the department Scientific Information the additional project „Mobile Tele-Teaching“ was financed amounting to EUR 60,000 out of the economic stimulus plan II. The Federal State of Berlin granted expenses affecting and consumptive allowances amounting to EUR 7,305,000 (without BRAIN und KOBV shares); the investment-related sector of the ZIB was granted EUR 435,000.

The third-party funding decreased from EUR 6,417,000 in 2009 to EUR 6,046,000 in 2010. This decrease relates only to the third-party means of the public sector. In 2009 they amounted to EUR 4,656,000, and in 2010 only to EUR 3,797,000. This decrease was compensated by the acquisition of industrial funds; which increased form EUR 1,761,000 in 2009 to EUR 2,250,000 in 2010 – which was a great success for ZIB. Those means which were transferred to research partners as part of project cooperation, were, of course, subtracted and not considered here. Third-party funding from the industrial sector ranked on the highest level since the foundation of ZIB.

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