AUSTRALIA—GERMANY WORKSHOP ON BIODIVERSITY

The Shine Dome, 13-17 March 2006

Plenary session — The German Research Landscape and Science System
by Dr Christian Stienen, Head of Division, Asia and Oceania, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Although there is a strong tradition of international cooperation in research and development in Germany, globalisation presents increasing challenges. The German Government is trying to give renewed momentum to its bilateral cooperation and has begun to work with New Zealand, Australia and other countries in Asia. According to Dr Steinen, Australia was among the most important partners in the region.

More than 2.5 million students undertake studies across a great variety of disciplines in German universities, which receive approximately €9 billion a year. Germany is well known as a country where university education and research are closely linked. The German Research Foundation finances most research, with funds from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research amounting to more than €1 billion a year.

In the early 1970s, a number of institutions, known as Blue Listed organisations, were amalgamated to form the Research Association Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, which receives more than €1 billion a year. The Helmholtz Association of National Research Centres is an organisation of 15 national centres carrying out research in various fields, and receives €2.2 billion a year from government.

The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft works closely with industry and is responsible for 58 national institutions conducting intensive applied research. The Max Planck Society has 78 institutions in Germany and is responsible for undertaking most of the basic specialised research that is not done in the universities.

To bring these various organisations, institutions and researchers closer together, a program for competitive approaches to sourcing money from the Federal Government was begun. This has seen the establishment of 128 networks of competence, which include research organisations, private companies and academic institutions, with common thematic foci. These broadly diverse networks of competence can be found on the Internet at: www.kompetenznetze.de.

Germany has started an initiative for the internationalisation of research and development and would like to initiate joint projects in what are called ‘2+2’ projects between researchers and industry from one country and those from Germany, on the basis of mutual benefit for both countries. It would also like to increase the level of contract research provided by Germany, such as that offered through its institutions.

Since the enlargement of the European Union to 25 members, it has become more difficult to get a
return on the money that Germany pays into the EU. It is hoped that partners from outside the EU can
be convinced to use Germany as an entrance into European programs, such as the Framework
Program No. 7.