© Adobe Stock/anon
Levers for Germany's High-Tech Agenda
The right conditions are needed to turn new ideas into reality. The nine levers of Germany's High-Tech Agenda provide the necessary impetus for key technologies and strategic research areas. They are designed to give those involved in research and development greater freedom, open up better financing opportunities and improve their ability to act. This should increase the willingness to take risks when investing in new ideas and measures and increase efficiency in implementation.
We accelerate the transfer of knowledge and technology between all stakeholders. This enables scientific findings to reach industry and society more quickly.
Priority Projects:
• We are strengthening application-oriented research at universities and supporting structures that promote innovation. To this end, we are creating a German Application Research Community (DAFG).
• We are standardizing spin-off agreements at universities and research institutions to make it easier for start-ups to get off the ground. Ten EXIST start-up factories are taking our start-up ecosystem to a new level. We are making EXIST the flagship program of the federal government.
• We are better leveraging the potential of innovative SMEs and future-oriented start-ups. They can increase our country's growth, prosperity, and competitiveness.
• We are identifying and analyzing barriers to transfer. To this end, we are launching the “Tailwind for Innovation” initiative. With the help of external experts, we are developing proposals for solutions to further improve transfers and innovation activities.
We give innovation room to breathe and free up players from petty bureaucratic requirements. We're also creating a new culture of empowerment for creative minds through digitalization and modern regulation.
Priority Projects
• We are making better use of the potential of data for research, society, and the state. To this end, we are passing the Research Data Act, further developing the Health Data Use Act, and creating a link to European data spaces.
• We are passing an Innovation Freedom Act. This gives research and development more freedom and frees companies from bureaucracy.
• We are creating space for experimentation through real-world laboratories and through opening and experimentation clauses. This will enable stakeholders to test innovative technologies and new business models under real-world conditions and bring them into use more quickly.
• We are digitizing the entire funding process for all stakeholders – from applicants to funding agencies to project sponsors.
• We are making the research allowance more attractive. This in turn strengthens Germany as an investment location and enables us, among other things, to promote research activities by companies across a range of topics.
• We systematically test experimental funding formats. This allows us to quickly roll out successful formats and regulatory simplifications on a broad scale.
We are creating new financing instruments, further developing the venture capital market, and making investments more attractive. In this way, we are raising the capital needed to develop new technologies.
Priority Projects
• We are developing a Germany Fund to strengthen the German venture capital market. We are improving regulatory and tax policy conditions so that institutional investors can invest in start-ups and venture capital funds.
• We are doubling the WIN initiative (Initiative for Growth and Innovation Capital for Germany) to over €25 billion. We are creating a Future Fund II to promote spin-offs in the deep tech and biotech sectors.
• We are strengthening the role of the state as an anchor customer. This will enable us to support deep tech companies in their early stages. We are establishing new forms of public-private partnerships in research and development, also with a view to minimizing risks.
We are strengthening resilience in the scientific system and expanding research security, science communication, and participation in order to preserve and protect our democracy and our value system.
Priority projects
• We are developing guidelines for dealing with sensitive international contexts and improving the advisory infrastructure. In doing so, we are raising awareness of security-related issues and minimizing the potential for abuse and the risk of knowledge and technology leakage.
• We promote independent China studies. In doing so, we pool expertise and make it available to science, politics, business, and society as a basis for decision-making.
• We strengthen science communication and journalism structurally and financially. In this way, we make science communication an integral part of research and science and bring it more into the public eye.
We attract, support, and retain skilled workers for Germany as a center of innovation, both domestically and from abroad. We are committed to a gender-equal and inclusive science system. We strengthen the skills of employees across the board.
Priority Projects
• We offer international stars and talents in the science system prospects in Germany with the “1,000-Köpfe-plus” initiative. We establish Germany as a safe haven for academic freedom and position ourselves as one of the most attractive locations for science worldwide.
• We are reforming the Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act and creating clear medium-term prospects for researchers.
• We are further developing the MINT Action Plan in order to attract young talent to key technologies and to address the gender gap in this area. To this end, we are promoting, among other things, summer camps at universities and research institutions for high school students.
• We are further developing existing initiatives and action days to attract more women to technical professions and to sensitize skilled workers along the education chain to cliché-free study and career orientation. These action days and initiatives include: Girls' Day, YouCodeGirls, Klischeefrei.
• We are further developing the skilled labor strategy. It secures the skilled labor base in Germany and addresses demographic developments.
• We are creating a digital agency for skilled worker immigration. This will establish a single point of contact for foreign skilled workers. The agency aims to improve immigration processes and speed up the recognition of foreign qualifications.
• We are making it easier for international high potentials to start businesses in Germany by expanding the services offered by the Global Certification and Consulting Center (GCCC) as part of EXIST to create a one-stop shop.
We are expanding European and international cooperation in research and innovation. We are thinking about innovation, competitiveness, and sovereignty in close cooperation with European and international partners.
Priority Projects
• We are improving the framework conditions for cooperation in the European Research Area (ERA). We support the establishment and expansion of data spaces in order to achieve the best possible synergy effects. The National Research Data Infrastructure will play a key role here in the future.
• We are committed to reforming EU state aid law to make procedures faster and more innovation-friendly. This will strengthen Europe's competitiveness.
• We support the deepening of the EU Capital Markets Union, thereby facilitating access to venture capital for innovation in Europe.
• We are intensifying and diversifying bilateral and multilateral cooperation with partner countries and regions. In doing so, we are helping high-tech players gain access to global knowledge flows, tap into new markets, and reduce dependencies.
• We are promoting start-ups and SMEs for cross-border collaborative projects.
We ensure the supply of critical raw materials and resources. These form the basis and driving force behind key technologies of the future and are essential for our strategic autonomy, resource sovereignty, and the development of a circular economy.
Priority Projects
• We jointly promote skilled workers from Germany and abroad in order to improve the knowledge base in Germany. This increases the pool of skilled workers in the field of raw material exploration and utilization. This also applies to the field of materials innovation.
• We are testing innovative and data-driven approaches in the field of “design for circularity” and developing industry-specific approaches for the circular economy. This helps to incorporate its principles right from the start of value chains and leads to a more efficient use of resources.
• We promote and test novel forms of using key resources in order to develop their market potential.
• We are strengthening the technological basis for Germany as a resource-sovereign and competitive industrial location through the new BMFTR specialist program “Material Innovations for the Transformation of the Economy and Society.” We are developing high-performance substitute materials, thereby conserving resources and reducing dependencies.
• We are a strong partner in the EU initiative “Advanced Materials for Industrial Leadership.” As such, we are actively driving the development of an ecosystem for progress.
We are investing strategically in research infrastructure in order to strengthen our international competitiveness and address the investment backlog in the science system. This is the only way we can maintain our leading position as a location for research and investment.
Priority Projects
• We are implementing projects on the shortlist of the prioritization process for research infrastructure. In doing so, we are focusing on the importance of research infrastructures as the core of new, research-driven innovation and value creation ecosystems.
• We are strengthening the capacities of the National Research Data Infrastructure in the areas of data storage, processing, and provision. This also applies to the capacities of public and private data infrastructures. In addition, we are strengthening the competence of researchers to advance the digital backup, use, and exploitation of research data.
• We are building up European data resources to strengthen the resilience and redundancy of research data in the long term.
• We are strengthening German participation in European and international coordination processes. In doing so, we are living up to Germany's role as an important international scientific nation.
We are removing barriers that hinder civil-military research cooperation and strengthening collaboration. In this way, we are leveraging synergies and strengthening Germany's position as a research location in the international competition for key technologies.
Priority Projects
• We are creating suitable conditions for promoting security-related research. We are ensuring greater exchange between civilian and military research in Germany, Europe, and NATO.
• We are creating a funding framework for security and defense research. This enables cooperation between universities and non-university research institutions with the Bundeswehr and companies.
• We provide targeted support for spin-offs from science that pursue a dual-use approach. This is done within the framework of the EXIST start-up grant and EXIST research transfer.