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A new €6 billion Programme for R&D

The German government plans to invest an additional €6 billion in R&D in order to increase incentives for innovation. The funds are destined for projects and measures expected to increase innovation activities and markets.

The background to this initiative is the recognition that since economic success, wealth, and growth are based on knowledge and dependent from incentives for innovation, scientific break troughs are needed. Consequently, the German government considers additional support not only as justified, but also as essential for Germany’s future.

The new innovation policy also includes a so called “High-Tech-Strategy” which bundles R&D support measures and framework design for selected high-tech sectors over the following years. The strategy will be developed, elaborated and presented to the public in summer 2006. The intention is to investigate which areas are most attractive for funding in order to leverage growth, and to devise a policy with the most promising impact on labour market conditions.

The government’s Six-Billion-Euro Programme is an expression of its commitment to promoting Germany as a competitive location for industry.

Furthermore, the programme contributes to efforts aimed at reaching the target of increasing R&D expenditure to 3% of GDP by 2010.

In the first stage of the programme, €700 million will be made available for projects starting in 2006. The overall amount of available funding is expected to increase annually until 2009.

The first stage focuses on three main field of activity:

  • Promotion and support of advanced technologies providing a broad application potential. These technologies include information-, bio- and nanotechnology as well as astronautics and space technologies. Other future markets are in the areas of health care, energy, security, environment and and mobility. The budget for this field of activity the budget is approximately €340 million and is divided between the Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the Ministry for Economic Affairs (BMWi), the Ministry for the Environment (BMU), the Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Development (BMVBS), the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), the Home Office (BMI) and the Defence Ministry (BMVg).
  • Promotion and support for innovative SMEs in order to generate more, and more dynamic, business start-ups. The government aims to increase its stake in innovation expenditure of SMEs, improve financing conditions for innovation and improve the transfer from R&D output to marketable products. Moreover, special support will be made available for technology and knowledge based starts-ups. Measures include the High-Tech foundation (“High-Tech Gründerfonds”), GO-Bio (supporting start-ups in biotechnology) as well as PRO INNO II.
    The budget for this area is approximately €80 million and is divided between the BMWi, the BMBF and the BMVBS.
  • Promotion of performance and international competitiveness as a research location. The budget for this area is approximately €280 million and is divided between the BMBF, the Foreign Office (AA) and the Federal Chancellery (BKM).

Besides promoting innovation and growth, the programme also aims at starting a new stage in the co-operation between different ministries in order to bundle governmental R&D promotion, thus increasing the overall quality of public support measures.

The programme is the government’s reaction to the strong dependency of private sector investments in R&D on the business cycle. This correlation means that the continuity of R&D investments cannot be guaranteed without significant public support. However, continuous R&D investments are essential in order to ensure the government’s aim of sustainability in the area of R&D and innovation.

URL for further information: www.bmbf.de/de/6075.php

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