RECENT TRENDS REGARDING INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

Public
Public R&D funding (GBAORD) has increased between 2005 and 2010 and is slightly
decreasing since 2013, remaining on a rather high level as Figure 9 shows.
Public funding will continue to increase. Between 2010 and 2013 € 13.3 billion have been
provided for education and research funding. The governmental budget, adopted in the
end of June 2014 foresees further € 3 billion for R&D, safeguarding the 3%-objective for
R&D funding.

The budget of the four big non-university research organizations, Helmholtz,
Max-Planck, Leibniz and Fraunhofer as well as of the German research organization will
continue to increase annually by 5%. In addition the excellence initiative as well as
programme lump funds will receive another € 730 million, strengthening research at Higher
Education Institutions. As part of the High-Tech-Strategy projects which contribute to
societal and global challenges as e.g. The so-called Energiewende (transition in the energy
system) are funded with € 2.1 billion (which is, compared to 2009 an increase of 13%,
compared to 2005 of 66%) (BMBF 2014b). In general, the above described budget leaves
financial room for the Länder which is supposed to be used for investments in education
and research.

There is no contract, however, obliging them which is why some interviewees
doubt if the Länder will eventually use the money to fund their respective research
institutes.