topic Hightech Strategy

Life Sciences

The new century is the century of the life sciences. They contribute considerably to understanding living organisms and ecological systems. They provide unprecedented opportunities for understanding genetic diseases or diseases triggered by external impacts and facilitate new therapies. At the same time, the life sciences have great potential for the creation of new, future-oriented jobs. The political task - as envisaged under the BMBF biotechnology programme - is to combine innovations with social responsibility.

The life sciences will be a decisive factor in the 21st century. The fundamental new findings in this area of science, the progress made with related technologies and their broad application in health, environmental and nutrition research will have a far-reaching impact on health care, the control of environmental hazards and on life as a whole. At the same time, the life sciences offer much potential for the creation and preservation of new, challenging jobs.

This opens up major fields of work for the BMBF, and these will become even more important in the future. Research funding in the life sciences is provided under the framework programme "Biotechnology - Using and Shaping its Opportunities", the programme "Health Research - Research for People" as well as by means of the institutional funding of non-university research institutions.

Genome research is an important basis for progress and new findings in the life sciences. The BMBF therefore provides funding for projects which aim to sequence and analyse the plant genome and the genome of microorganisms.  In the area of human genome research, support is given to the German Human Genome Project (GHGP) and to the National Genome Research Network, which was established in 2001 as part of the Federal Government's programme for investing in the future and is funded from the interest earned from the auctioning of UMTS licences.

The new approaches in the life sciences are being discussed by the general public and people are aware of the benefits and risks involved.  In order to be able to base decision-making on convincing facts and arguments, the BMBF supports scientific research projects on the ethical, legal and economic aspects of health research and bioscientific research.

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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Prevention

  It is popular wisdom that prevention is the best medicine. A BMBF research programme launched in 2003 sets out to discover why, and to what extent, prevention helps to improve people's health and quality of life.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1236.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Replacement of animal experiments

  The BMBF priority "Methods to replace animal experiments" is unique worldwide and is financially the most comprehensive funding effort and the longest in terms of time in this field. Over a period of 20 years, a total of about €70 million has so far been made available for more than 230 projects. These efforts have considerably reduced the number of test animals worldwide for research. The BMBF will continue to fund projects for replacing animal experiments in future.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1040.php)
   
  
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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Medical Technology

  Innovative prostheses can help to recover a person's lost abilities and senses. Research in the field of medical technology is working to provide new solutions in complex medical and technological areas. Minimally invasive surgery has revolutionized the diagnosis and therapy of diseases by using miniaturized treatment and surgical procedures. The visible success of these methods today shows the possibilities that medical technology holds for healthcare in the future. The BMBF is now pooling its activities in a new "Medical Technology Action Plan".
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1170.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  BioFuture - a future for young researchers

  By providing support for junior researchers we are investing in our future. BioFuture successfully supports young researchers in biotechnology and its neighbouring disciplines.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/991.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Health Research

  In recent years, biotechnological methods have helped us to identify new therapeutic approaches to many diseases involving fewer side-effects or have even made it possible to cure these diseases. Many of the research results have been generated in Germany. But very often new medicines based on these results are produced in other countries. For example, German pharmaceutical companies were only responsible for developing six out of a total of 140 newly licensed active substances in 2005. The BMBF is therefore launching its Pharmaceuticals Initiative in order to improve the networking of stakeholders in biopharmaceuticals and promote the development of new treatments in Germany.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/gesundheitsforschung.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Biomedical Research

  Molecular life sciences enable us to gain ever deeper insights into life processes. Since the spectacular decoding of the structure of the human genome in June 2000 at the latest, we have been aware of the enormous dynamic of the increase in knowledge. Biomedical research opens up to us a great variety of applications.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/979.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Biotechnology

  The spectacular advances in the biosciences have drawn the general public's awareness to this new field. Human hereditary material has been largely decoded. The next aim now is to understand its functioning. This promises to be an enormous step towards gaining more knowledge and finding many new apporaches to fighting disease. Supporting biotechnology is a central priority of the Federal Government's research policy. Its Biotechnology Framework Programme aims to ensure the high international standing of the biosciences and to develop new innovation potentials.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1024.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Ethics and law

  Research on embryonic stem cells, patents on genes? How far does the freedom of research go and where are its social limits? Research on ethical, legal and social aspects of the biosciences attempts to find answers to these questions. It is the task of an innovation-oriented research policy to strike a balance between ethics and progress and to accompany and support all legislative processes touching on aspects of bioscience research. The most recent example of this is the Law allowing the import of embryonic stem cells, which entered into force at the beginning of July 2002.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1056.php)