topic Science

Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation

German research now has a tail wind for better opportunities in international competition and is to become even more competitive in order to master the global challenges. On 23 June 2005, the Federal Government and the Länder have therefore adopted the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. The major science and research organizations will as a result receive more money from 2006 onwards for enhancing their performance, for stronger cooperation and better support of young scientists. New and unconventional topics will also receive funding.

On 23 June 2005, the Federal Government and the Minister-Presidents of the Länder adopted the "Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation". This Initiative will increase funding for the major science and research organizations which are co-financed by the Federal Government and the Länder, namely

• Hermann von Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres (HGF)
• Max Planck Society (MPG)
• Fraunhofer Society (FhG)
• Leibniz Science Association (Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Science Association, WGL), and
• the German Research Association (DFG) as research funding organization.

The Joint Initiative is part of the Federal Government's Campaign for Innovation and Growth under which an additional 6 billion Euro will be invested in research and development. The equivalent for institutions of higher education is the Initiative for Excellence of the Federal Government and the Länder to promote science and research at German institutions of higher education. The increase in funds by 3% is to provide the research organizations with an additional 150 million Euro p.a.

Three percent increase for more competitiveness

The objective of the Joint Initiative is to increase the competitiveness of German research by making better use of existing potential. This means a concentration on excellence, on strengthening cooperation and networking across organizations, on supporting young scientists, as well as the possibility of taking up new and unconventional research approaches.

To achieve these objectives, the Federal Government and the Länder have committed themselves to making every effort, in spite of the necessary budget consolidation, to provide the science and research organizations with financial planning security and to increase annual grants by at least 3% p.a. until the year 2010.

Better quality and performance in research

The science and research organizations have in turn committed themselves to increasing the quality, efficiency and performance of their respective research and development work by applying appropriate measures

• to determine their strengths and weaknesses in the competition for excellence (benchmarking),
• to develop strategic new research areas in a future-oriented way while giving sufficient room to risky and unconventional research approaches (foresight),
• to enhance research collaborations and cooperation with industry (clusters),
• to develop structured support for doctoral students and young scientists further, and
• to develop structures for an increased support of women in science and research further and to increase the number of women in leading positions in science.

By means of different funding measures and an optimization of procedures, the DFG will

• strengthen quality-oriented individual funding,
• support innovation by funding projects and research areas with a high scientific risk but visible quality and expected knowledge potential
• strengthen profiling and develop relevant programmes further to pool excellence at institutions of higher education
• support the networking of institutions of higher education and research institutions, in particular by supporting research groups, priorities, postgraduate study groups, special research areas and research centres
• promote a dialogue on research strategy, and
• support ways towards a European research funding system.

The background of this setting of priorities in research and innovation is the decision of the European Council of Lisbon in 2000 to make the European Union the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economic area by 2010. A central element of the strategy is to strengthen research and development in the Member States and to increase R&D expenditure in the Member States to 3% of GDP by 2010. With an expenditure of about 2.5% of GDP at present, Germany is in a good position. However, to achieve the 3%-objective and secure Germany's innovative ability as well as its position in global competition, it is absolutely necessary to intensify research and development.