The Halle Institute for Economic Research passed its most recent service review with flying colours. The Senate of the Leibniz Association concluded its regular evaluation today with a statement. This recommends that the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz – GWK) continues to provide joint basic funding by Federal government and the Länder to IWH over the next seven years. The statement praises the "impressive development of the research programme, the appointment of outstanding young researchers from Germany and overseas to professorships and/or assistant professorships, the significant increase in the number of PhDs and the expansion of the research network". The report affirms the Institute's "remarkable performance improvements" in all five sub-sectors. The three research departments (Macroeconomics, Financial Markets, Structural Change and Productivity) and the structural units (Research Data Centre, Centre for Evidence-based Policy Advice) were all rated "very good".

Leibniz Institutes are regularly reviewed with regard to their overall performance, at least every seven years. The pre-requisites for joint basic funding by Federal government and the Länder must be met, namely nationwide significance and a federal scientific interest. The main basis for this review is an external evaluation. For this purpose, independent experts visited IWH last November.

"I'm delighted that the Leibniz Association recognises the outstanding achieve­ments of IWH staff," says Reint Gropp, President of the Institute. "The positive recommendation for continued funding gives us planning security and fresh energy. This will allow us to place even more emphasis on high-quality research over the next seven years. We've finally overcome the challenges of the past." Gropp, who has headed up IWH since November 2014, is referring to the results of previous evaluations. These had called for an improvement in its research performance. This has demonstrably been achieved, both quantitatively and quali­tatively. For example, the Institute increased the number of publications by 40% from 2015 to 2017, compared to the previous three-year period. At the same time, IWH researchers increased the number of articles in the world's leading journals, which receive top A and A+ scores in rankings, from almost zero to 25%. External funding almost doubled during the same period, from 1.9 to 3.6 million euros.

Gropp is now looking forward to IWH's next major project: the establishment of a new fourth department. Under the name "Laws, Regulations and Factor Markets", it will conduct research into the interdependencies of government regulation of financial and labour markets from 2020, as well as their implications for the real economy. The Institute's basic funding is therefore being increased by around 20%, as agreed by the GWK in May.

Armin Willingmann, Minister of Economic Affairs, Science and Digitalisation for the State of Saxony-Anhalt, congratulated the Institute: "As Minister of Science, I would like to congratulate IWH on the extremely positive conclusion of the evaluation. The result is testament to the quality of the achievements of President Reint Gropp and his team in Halle, where excellent work has been undertaken with a steady hand and clear strategy in recent years. I'm particularly pleased about the decision to expand IWH with a department for financial and labour market research. This will allow IWH to become a leading player in the league of German economic research institutes in the future. This development strengthens Saxony-Anhalt's position as a science location with regard to excellence in economic research. And as Minister of Economic Affairs, I look forward to continuing to collaborate closely with IWH's researchers for policy advice, as well as our constructive critical discourse."

Sabine Freifrau von Schorlemer, Chair of the IWH Supervisory Board, also welcomed the result: "The consistent development of the research profile achieved since President Reint Gropp came to office and this positive evaluation consolidate IWH's position as one of the country's leading non-academic research institutes. The strategic expansion agreed by the GWK will close a gap in German financial market and productivity research. Its international outlook is also reinforced: thanks to its diverse cooperative relationships with universities, research institutions, associations and administrative authorities, not only in Germany, but also in Europe, Asia and across the Atlantic, IWH is making a valuable contribution to the globalisation of economic research."

The statement of the Senate of the Leibniz Association regarding the evaluation of IWH is available via this link: http://www.leibniz-gemeinschaft.de/ueber-uns/evaluierung/das-evaluierungsverfahren-der-leibniz-gemeinschaft/senatsstellungnahmen/.