International organizations and programmes

Since multilateral organizations can be the sources of important new impulses in international research and education work, the Federal Government promotes the opportunities and potential they offer by introducing initiatives that will provide political and programmatic support to their strategies and goals. This will also protect our national interests. It will allow us to make our mark on international framework conditions and to harmonize the responsibilities and achievements of these organizations with our own targets and international priorities in an effective way. The Federal Government is especially interested in supporting framework conditions that provide market access and enable international networking for research collaborations.
 
The international visibility of Germany's science and research potential is being increased by means of multilateral initiatives (multiplier effect). The aim here is to accelerate the implementation of national innovation goals by establishing global partnerships and improving the international links between different R&D programmes and initiatives.

Multilateral organizations are particularly important when it comes to areas of research and education policy that can only be addressed effectively in an international context. This includes global environmental research, achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and finding solutions to global security problems and resource shortages. Multilateral organizations and bodies can also trigger important global harmonization processes, for example the introduction of necessary standardizations, agreements on the use of research results and intellectual property rights.

In order to use the potential offered by multilateral cooperation more effectively, we need to coordinate our work with our national and international partners from politics and science consistently and at an early stage. It is important to follow a long-term strategic approach that takes into account the overall development of the individual organizations and the potential connections between different cooperation forums.