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High-Tech Strategy Attracts Billions in Investment
Implemented just a year ago, Germany’s High-Tech Strategy has already attracted more than three billion euros in investment in research and development. The task now, says German Research and Education Minister Annette Schavan, is to put all the creative ideas into action and develop marketable products. "We are on track for modernization in Germany. We just need to pick up steam and produce the kind of innovations that will secure economic growth,” Schavan said at a congress on innovation. The first year of the strategy has brought many new research and innovation policy initiatives. Industry research and development has received a three-billion-euro boost just from the initiation of strategic alliances between research and industry. Some of these alliances leverage public-private investment at a ratio of as high as one to six. The High-Tech Strategy sets out targets for 17 growth sectors in which the German government will have invested almost 15 billion euros by 2009. The aim is to foster strategic alliances between industry and research to ensure a steady stream of ideas for marketable products and services. The figures speak for themselves
A recent survey conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) shows that 37 percent of businesses place more importance on research and innovation now than they did a year ago. "This highlights a new strategic approach in German industry,” stressed Schavan. With investment in research and development (R&D) up 7.5 percent in the current year, ZEW says, growth in this sector will be even higher than expected. "In the first half of this decade, R&D investment stagnated relative to GDP. Germany is now back on track,” Schavan said. Schavan announced a new set of tax concessions designed to promote research and development activity. The German government has already invested an additional 6.5 billion euros in R&D in the current legislative period alone. Lisbon Strategy: Germany on track “Much has been achieved so far, but there is still a lot to do,” Minister Schavan said. Research policy thrives on long-term strategies, she said, which is why the German government is pursuing three key objectives for the period up to 2009: more public-private investment in research, implementation of the Lisbon Strategy and growing alliances between research and industry. The Lisbon Strategy’s three percent goal calls for investment in research and development to match three percent of GDP by 2010. Germany expects to have invested 2.7 percent of GDP in 2007. Private investment in R&D has risen by eight percent in each of the past two years. The overall goals are economic growth, new jobs and better quality of life. Policy instruments The aim is to use sustainable policy instruments to fund research that turns innovative ideas into marketable products and shortens their time to market. As Parliamentary State Secretary Dagmar Wöhrl from the German Ministry of Economics explained: “The German government plans to create a central coordination office to manage the funding programs operated by the various ministries.” Another component of the High-Tech Strategy is the Initiative for Excellence competition to foster highly productive joint ventures between business and research (known as ‘clusters of excellence’). To boost innovative ability in these clusters, the German government has allocated an overall budget of 200 million euros to fund five clusters of excellence for a five-year period. The new research initiative and improved conditions for high-tech start-ups and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises all play a role in fostering change in the research environment. Apart from providing the legal framework, the strategy gives innovative young enterprises better access to venture capital. November 7, 2007 Source: REGIERUNGonline Link
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