There are a lot of Frauenhofer's and the quality varies quite a bit (anecdotally, anything involving physical engineering is usually solid). They also tend to m

There are a lot of Frauenhofer's and the quality varies quite a bit (anecdotally, anything involving physical engineering is usually solid). They also tend to mass apply for all sorts of grants and build research proposals around trends. They are well connected and politically it's never a bad idea to have a Frauenhofer in your consortium if you apply for a national grant (imo). I'm a bit torn on the overall concept since it seems zero-sum-ish and I'd rather see more research directly at the universities.