The following year he got his Technical Development Center back from the Fraunhofer Society.
Experiments by scientists at the Fraunhofer Society in 2004 using neural networks led to noticeable improvements within 30 minutes of training.
The Fraunhofer Society has become an important factor in location decisions and is seen as a useful part of the "knowledge infrastructure".
Under the model, the Fraunhofer Society earns about 70% of its income through contracts with industry or specific government projects.
Whether the Fraunhofer Society should support applied research through its own facilities was however the subject of a long-running dispute.
In 1965, the Fraunhofer Society was identified as a sponsor organization for applied research.
In 1968, the Fraunhofer Society became the target of public criticism for its role in military research.
By 1988, defense research represented only about 10% of the entire expenditure of the Fraunhofer Society.
MP3 license revenues generated about €100 million for the Fraunhofer Society in 2005.
She also was a member of the board of the Fraunhofer Society and head of human resources and legal issues.