Budget

Investing in the future of education and research is a top priority - in times of economic crisis, we need investments more than ever before. They can help us to overcome the crisis and emerge from it stronger and with new ideas. The Federal Government is making an important contribution to this. With a total volume of €10.9 billion, the BMBF's budget for 2010 will increase by about €660 - or more than 6 per cent - compared with 2009. Education and research have thus become firmly established in the federal budget, despite the difficult financial situation.

---

The 2011 Draft Budget

Early childhood education, support for young skilled staff, and higher education are special focuses. The BMBF funds that will be available for the planned increase in BAföG grants, for example, exceed the 2010 amount by €160 million. The existing pillars of the Higher Education Pact (creation of new university places and improvement of research at universities) are being steadily strengthened. Total funds of €910 million will be available for that purpose in 2011. In addition, the Federal Government, together with the Länder, is establishing a new, third pillar of the Higher Education Pact - the Quality Pact for Teaching. The Federal Government will spend €140 million on this third pillar in 2011. The successful Initiative for Excellence will be continued and funded by the BMBF with just under €327 million in 2011. Furthermore, the competition "Advancement through Education: Open Universities" has been launched to strengthen continuing education. Funding of €250 million will be made available for that purpose until 2018.

In the area of early childhood education, the BMBF will invest an additional €100 million in 2011 together with the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. In cooperation with the Federal Employment Agency, the BMBF will also support the employment of paid and voluntary mentors at secondary general schools. These mentors will accompany pupils' transition into vocational training by offering continuous individual support over several years.

The Federal Government is also increasing funding for large research organizations. It will continue the successful Pact for Research and Innovation, which guarantees annual funding increases of 5% for German research organizations. BMBF's basic funding for institutions will increase by roughly €233 million compared with 2010. Further progress can thus be made with the establishment of the German Centres for Health Research, which is a central item on the current coalition government's research policy agenda.

Project funding in the life sciences will also continue at a high level with roughly half a billion euros. The same applies to new technologies (€709 million), where the focus is on electromobility research, and to the area "Climate, Energy, Environment" (€368 million). On this basis, the electromobility and battery research initiatives and the Photovoltaics Innovation Alliance can be implemented as planned. Next year, €131 million will be available for new funding instruments under the Federal Government's High-Tech Strategy - particularly the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition, validation support, and the "Industry on Campus" concept.

The 2010 Budget

The 2010 federal budget provides for a €750 million increase in funding for education and research - a first step towards realizing the goals defined in the Coalition Agreement, which states that the Federal Government will make an additional €12 billion available for these vitally important areas in the current legislative period. The budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for 2010 will thus increase by about 6.5 per cent to a total of approximately €10.9 billion compared with the previous year.

This provides financial security for the continuation of the Pact for Higher Education, the Initiative for Excellence, and the Pact for Research and Innovation. In total, the Federal Government will provide additional funding of roughly €2.5 billion for these important initiatives between 2011 and 2013. Funding for the Higher Education Pact will increase by 33 per cent to €509 million next year; these funds will be used specifically to create new university places. Federal funding to strengthen lifelong learning will increase by 44 per cent to €201 million. Expenditure on projects to modernize and strengthen vocational training will increase by no less than 71 per cent to a record level of €193 million. Among other things, these funds will be used to offer improved careers guidance to pupils starting in year 7 and to modernize inter-company vocational training centres.

The additional funding will also secure the future viability of the education system at all levels. For example, efforts will be made to expand early childhood learning, language tuition and individual support for low achievers. Training assistance under the BAföG law will be improved and a national scholarship programme introduced to give young people from non-academic families better access to universities. The Federal Government is committed to improving academic teaching quality, student-teacher ratios and mobility. To this end, it wants to conclude a Bologna "Mobility and Quality Pact" with the Länder.

The High-Tech Strategy will be developed further to encourage more innovation in emerging sectors. Project funding for the promising areas of life sciences, climate, environment and new technologies will increase by 13 per cent over the previous year to a total of approximately €1.6 billion.

Project funding for the life sciences will increase by about 12 per cent to almost half a billion euros. In the area of climate and energy (which will increase by roughly 7 per cent to €380 million) and in the area of new technologies, funding for innovative battery technologies will be provided in order to promote electric mobility and enhance climate protection. Project funding for new technologies will increase by roughly 14 per cent to more than €700 million. A funding priority for the new German Länder will focus on strengthening top-class research and innovation. This area will receive an additional €21 million, bringing its funding up to a total of €143 million. Promising projects in the new Länder will also receive considerable funding from other BMBF funding programmes.

The 2009 Budget

In 2009, the Federal Government considerably increased its expenditure on education and research: The budget of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) grew to a total of €10.204 billion.

The Federal Government adopted the Six Billion Euro programme for Research and Development (R&D) as well as the High-Tech Strategy for Germany at the beginning of the legislative period. As in the 2008 budget, expenditure on research and development continued to rise considerably: The BMBF budget for 2009 and the following years provided for an additional €300 million p.a. for R&D compared with previous financial plans. These additional funds were used mainly for the following areas:

• Research on ageing societies and health research
• Strengthening R&D capacities in small and medium-sized enterprises by means of the "SME innovative" funding initiative
• Climate and energy research 
• Strengthening international research cooperation

Moreover, further funds of €185 million were made available for 2009 within the framework of the Innovation and Investment Programme for Education and Research.

All in all, BMBF project funding rose by 13.5 per cent compared with 2008 to about €3.5 billion. Under the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation, the Federal Government continued its efforts to modernize the structure and strengthen the international competitiveness of the German research environment. This included the establishment of a German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the launch of the National Academy of Sciences. Altogether, about €3.9 billion were available in 2009 for funding large-scale research institutions. Funding was raised by about €136 million to over €1.4 billion in order to finance the increase in BAföG adopted by the Federal Government and at the same time increase the number of students receiving grants. The increase in grants under the 22nd Amendment to the Federal Training Assistance Act was also implemented for the Upgrading Training Assistance Act and for grants for the promotion of the gifted. Furthermore, additional funds of €30 million allowed increased financial assistance for "Meister" trainees under the Upgrading Training Assistance Act and for the award of scholarships to upgrade training as early as 2009. These scholarships provide talented trainees in vocational education with an additional incentive to take up studies and to thus obtain further qualifications.

Higher Education Pact 2020

According to the agreement reached by the heads of the Federal and Länder governments on 20 August 2007, the Higher Education Pact 2020 includes a programme for the admission of new university entrants and a programme for funding one-off payments for research projects supported by the German Research Association (DFG). As agreed, €242 million were available for this in 2008; the resources needed for the higher education pact were also taken into account in the financial planning period beyond 2008. Approximately €1,294 million were available up to 2010.

BAföG

Expenditure for BAföG increased by about €167 million in 2008, to €1.297 million. This enabled a significant increase of the grant parameters - which had not been changed since 2001 - starting in the winter semester of the 2008/2009 academic year

The BMBF and its financing tasks

The BMBF finances numerous institutions and projects in education and research, either alone or in conjunction with the Länder.

According to the latest available statistics from the Federal Statistical office for 2005, the Federal Government and the Länder spent a total of approximately €17.2 billion on research and development (R&D), whereas companies spent €38.2 billion. The state thus financed a total of 31 per cent of all R&D expenditure in Germany. A total of €5.8 billion of state research expenditure in 2005 went to the institutional funding of research organizations which are jointly financed by the Federal Government and the Länder. The German Research Association, which predominantly finances research at universities, received additional funds. In 2005, according to the Federal Statistical Office:

• The German Research Association (DFG) received €1.4 billion;
• The centres of the Hermann von Helmholtz Association (HGF) received €2.5 billion;
• The Max Planck Society (MPG) received €1.2 billion;
• The Fraunhofer Society (FhG) received €1.3 billion;
• The Leibniz Association's institutions received €0.8 billion, and
• The Academies received €0.1 billion

With €0.9 billion, the public research institutions of the Federal Government, the Länder, and the local governments received a share of 11.1 per cent of total expenditure on non-university research and development institutions. The BMBF alone finances more than two thirds of this sum, with the share of federal and Länder funding varying from institution to institution. Depending on the type of institution, the share of funding provided by the Länder is either divided up between the participating Länder alone or between all the Länder according to an established formula (the Königstein formula). (Source: Research and Innovation in Germany 2005)

---

top