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Why are collaboration and interaction important for business R&D?
German business and scientific research cooperate in many areas. For example, there are numerous joint programmes and research projects involving companies as well as universities and public research institutions.
Many different forms of cooperation are possible here:
- contract research for business companies carried out by universities and non-university research institutions
- joint staffing and funding of research projects
- business-funded research groups
- donations and sponsorship for specific R&D institutes
- establishment of endowed professorships by companies
- jointly funded research structures or institutes
- new collaborative models in networks, clusters or public-private partnerships/research campuses
Knowledge transfer
These various forms of cooperation are supported by a broad and specially tailored range of public funding models. With these measures, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) aims to strengthen the links between science, research, business and society.
They include, for example, Clusterplattform Deutschland, a platform that aims to keep actors in and outside Germany informed of the latest programmes and calls for proposals of the Federal Government, the German states and the European Union.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG) is the most important provider of third-party funding for universities. It also supports knowledge transfer between scientific research and business. The DFG funds over 100 transfer projects a year.
This will have a twofold effect: on the one hand, knowledge transfer is expected to contribute to increased innovation in the business economy and society, while at the same time collaborative projects between research and non-research partners can also give rise to new research questions and in turn deliver ideas for basic research.
Joint research
Industrial giants should not be the only companies able to try out their ideas and put them into practice. Small and medium-sized enterprises generally cannot afford to carry out research on their own, however. That’s why there are extensive funding structures, supported with taxpayers’ money, that support SMEs with research and development.
One of these is Industrial Collective Research (IGF), a unique programme that provides targeted support for SMEs. It is used to fund pre-competitive and market-oriented research projects. IGF funding is also used to pursue projects in the transnational CORNET network together with international cooperation partners. Ultimately, everyone benefits: the results of IGF projects are published and made available to all companies.
Funding for cooperative research
The effectiveness of this research service for business, and especially for SMEs, is based on cooperation: for example, more than 80 industrial research associations work together under the umbrella of the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations (AiF).
The AiF is one of the project management agencies for the German government’s SME-oriented technology funding measures and manages the R&D cooperation projects of the Central Innovation Programme for SMEs (ZIM). Run by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Action (BMWK), this programme supports the market-oriented research and development projects of small and medium-sized enterprises and cooperating research institutions. Over 626 million euros is made available annually for this purpose. This makes ZIM Germany’s largest innovation funding programme for SMEs.
Cooperation with international partners can also be pursued under the ZIM programme.
Facts and figures
Numerous joint programmes and research projects involving companies as well as universities and research institution.
Cooperation is supported by a broad and specially tailored range of public funding models
Over 626 million euros a year for ZIM, Germany’s largest innovation programme for small and medium-sized enterprises
The DFG alone finances over 100 transfer projects a year.