Germany: Federal Report on Research and Innovation 2012

The German government has published its “Federal Report on Research and Innovation 2012”. The comprehensive document (650 pages) provides a detailed account of Germany’s research and innovation system and the government’s policy objectives and measures in this field.

When presenting the report to the Cabinet, Ms Annette Schavan, Federal Minister for Research, praised the performance of the German innovation system: “Germany’s innovation performance has constantly increased in the past few years, thanks to great efforts jointly made by policy, business and research.” She stressed that Germany was among the leading economies regarding the export of research-intensive products, global patents and scientific publications. Ms Schavan also said that the government had invested in its current term more than ever into education, research and development. The budget for these domains have increased from EUR 9 billion in 2005 to 13.7 billion. The private sector has also increased its investments in research and development. In 2010, German enterprises invested about EUR 47 billion into R&D.

Structure of the report

The shorter Part I presents the German Federal Government's research and innovation policy objectives and measures. It outlines current and planned developments in Germany's “High-tech Strategy”, the composition of the science and education system, the internationalisation of research and innovation policy, and policy advice on science, research and innovation.

The comprehensive Part II consists of five chapters which inform about the structures, resources and funding programmes of the German research and innovation system.

• Chapter II.A provides an overview of the German research and innovation system.
• Chapter II.B informs about the central government’s research and innovation policies.
• Chapter II.C, informs about the research and innovation policies of the federal länder.
• Chapter II.D deals with International cooperation on research and innovation and informs about the international orientation of German research and innovation policy. It provides an overview of the internationalisation strategy and major bilateral/multilateral partnerships.
• Chapter II.E presents data, facts and figures about the German research and innovation system, including a selection of statistical tables.

References / further information:

In case of web sources, please do not just provide the URL but describe the source, for instance in the following way (see also model article on next page):

• “Innovationen "Made in Germany" - der Bundesbericht Forschung und Innovation 2012”, press release of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research,16th May 2012.
• Bundesbericht Forschung und Innovation 2012 (report, in German language, PDF document, 14 MB).
• Federal Report on Research and Innovation 2010 – Abstract (in English language, PDF document, 3 MB). 

File Attachment: 

Bundesbericht Forschung und Innovation 2012 (report in PDF format, in German language, 14 MB)