The focus of FHprofUnt is application-oriented research and development projects that involve collaboration between universities of applied sciences (UAS) and businesses. The aim is to improve the reciprocal transfer of knowledge and technology.

To ensure that, in the future, UAS are not just powerful partners to the businesses but also are able to compete within the German scientific community, funding will only be provided for projects that are embedded in the research profile or a research focus of the UAS and that are also designed to involve multiple disciplines.

For FHprofUnt, the project topics are concentrated in the fields of engineering, natural and economic sciences, and they are oriented on the demand fields of the High-Tech Strategy 2020 of the German government.

As evidence of the strong interest of the business community in the R & D projects, the business cooperation partners must contribute at least 15 per cent of the total expenditure (excluding investment expenditure) of the project. In order to improve the research framework conditions of the funded R & D projects, funding can also be applied for to acquire large-scale equipment with innovative technology.

In this funding line, which was introduced in 2006 as part of the Research at Universities of Applied Sciences programme, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has so far approved funding of around 242 million euros for 818 projects (as of 01 June 2019).