Parliamentary process for the 2012 budget complete

The 2012 federal budget makes clear that education and research investments for the future continue to be given top priority. The budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has increased by eleven percent compared to 2011, placing it at a record high of €12.9 billion.

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The 2012 Budget

Within the parliamentary process to establish the 2012 budget, the Federal Government further strengthened the political focus of its work - education and research. "Thanks to this strategy, Germany has emerged from the global economic and financial crisis stronger than before. Investing in new ideas is the only way to wake and develop existing potential. Particularly in a country like Germany with few natural resources, this is a vital investment in the future", said Federal Minister of Education and Research Annette Schavan.

Especially with the three large initiatives "Higher Education Pact", "Excellence Initiative", and the "Pact for Research and Innovation", the sciences in Germany will be prepared to meet the challenges of the coming years. In addition, the parliamentary procedures further strengthened central measures in education as well as increased funding to BAföG.

The 2011 Budget

 

Special priorities include early childhood education, promoting young skilled staff, and higher education. For example, the BMBF is providing an additional €160 million to increase training assistance under the BAföG law. The existing pillars of the Pact for Higher Education (increasing the number of university places and improving research at universities) are being strengthened continuously. A total of €910 million will be available for this purpose in 2011. In addition, the Federal Government and the Länder are establishing a third pillar of the Pact for Higher Education - the Teaching Quality Pact. The Federal Government will provide €140 million for this pillar in 2011. The BMBF will make almost €327 million available for the continuation of the successful Initiative for Excellence. The competition "Advancement through Education: Open Universities" is being launched in order to strengthen continuing education. €250 million are to be provided for this by 2018.

Together with the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth, the BMBF will invest an additional €100 million in the area of early childhood education in 2011. The BMBF, in cooperation with the Federal Employment Agency, will also employ salaried and voluntary mentors ("Bildungslotsen") at secondary general schools to facilitate the transition into vocational training. The aim is to give pupils continuous individual support over the course of several years.

The Federal Government is also increasing funding for large research organizations. It will continue the successful Pact for Research and Innovation, which guarantees German research organizations an annual increase of 5 per cent. Basic funding for institutions will increase by approximately €228 million compared with 2010.

The establishment of German centres for health research is a core element of this coalition's research policy agenda.

Project funding in the life sciences will continue at a high level, with approximately half a billion euros. The same applies to new technologies (€709 million), with a special focus on electromobility research and on the area of climate, energy and environment (€368 million). This means that the electromobility and battery research initiatives and the photovoltaics innovation alliance can be realized according to plan. A total of €131 million will be available in 2011 for new funding instruments in connection with the High-Tech Strategy, particularly the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition, the validation of research results, and the industry-research campus.

The 2010 Budget

The 2010 federal budget provides for a €750 million increase in funding for education and research - a first step towards realizing the goals defined in the Coalition Agreement, which states that the Federal Government will make an additional €12 billion available for these vitally important areas in the current legislative period. The budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for 2010 will thus increase by about 6.5 per cent to a total of approximately €10.9 billion compared with the previous year.

This provides financial security for the continuation of the Pact for Higher Education, the Initiative for Excellence, and the Pact for Research and Innovation. In total, the Federal Government will provide additional funding of roughly €2.5 billion for these important initiatives between 2011 and 2013. Funding for the Higher Education Pact will increase by 33 per cent to €509 million next year; the money will specifically be spent to create new university places.
Federal funds made available to strengthen lifelong learning will increase by 44 per cent to €201 million. Expenditure on projects to modernize and strengthen vocational training will increase by 71 per cent and reach a record level of €193 million. Among other things, these funds will be used to offer improved careers guidance to pupils starting in year 7 and to modernize inter-company vocational training centres.

The additional funding will also create the financial basis necessary to secure the future viability of the education system at all levels. Early childhood education and language tuition as well as individual support for low-achievers will be expanded. Training assistance under the BAföG law will be improved and a national scholarship programme introduced to help young people from non-academic families enter university. The Federal Government is committed to improving academic teaching quality, student-teacher ratios and mobility. To this end, it wants to conclude a Bologna "Mobility and Quality Pact" with the Länder.

The High-Tech Strategy will be developed further to encourage more innovation in emerging sectors. Project funding for the promising areas of life sciences, climate, environment and new technologies will increase by 13 per cent over the previous year to a total of approximately €1.6 billion.

The amount provided for projects in the life sciences will increase by approximately 12 per cent to almost half a billion euros. In the area of climate and energy (which will increase by roughly 7 per cent to €380 million) and in the area of new technologies, funding for innovative battery technologies will be provided in order to promote electromobility and enhance climate protection. Project funding for new technologies will increase by roughly 14 per cent to over €700 million. A funding priority for the East German Länder will focus on strengthening top-class research and innovation. This area will receive an additional €21 million, bringing its funding up to a total of €143 million. Promising projects in the East German Länder will also receive considerable funding from other BMBF funding programmes.