In 2006 the German government has increased the amount of money spent on research and development (R&D) by almost 7%. This is the conclusion of the 2006 Federal Report on Research prepared by the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) which was approved yesterday by the federal cabinet.
Compared to last year the German government has increased investment in research and development by 609 million Euros or 6.8% in 2006 which corresponds to a total sum of 9.6 billion Euros. By the year 2010 investment by the government and business in R&D is to amount to 3% of GDP. In order to reach this objective the government wants to increase R&D expenditure by 6 billion Euros by the year 2009. According to Annette Schavan, Federal Minister for Education and Research, there has never been a stronger increase of such investment in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Now it was up to the federal states and business to make their contribution as well.
With 2.5 percent of GDP spent on R&D Germany is to date in 9th place worldwide and thus behind OECD member states like the USA and Japan, but, for example, still ahead of China. Within the European Union Germany comes third after Sweden and Finland.
This year the mentioned federal report is published for the last time. In future a commission of international and independent experts on „Forschung und Innovation” will constantly provide scientific advice to the government and publish a report on research and innovation every two years from 2008 onwards. In addition, the government is going to present another report providing detailed information on the research and innovation policies of the federal government and those of the federal states as well as on EU policies.
The complete 2006 Federal Report on Research is available on the internet with further information also being available online. 