Germany - A Hotbed of Talent

Germany is experiencing a decline in population. At the same time, the knowledge society needs an increasing number of skilled workers and specialists. An additional 2 million workers approximately are expected to be needed until 2020. At the same time, the best talents can choose their centre of life across the world. They go where the best conditions are provided. It is important that we attract these top-class people to Germany. This applies to Germans just as it applies to bright minds from abroad. In the global competition, we need qualified labour and particularly talented people who are willing to bear responsibility in state and society.

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Promoting young researchers

The BMBF funds, directly or indirectly, a considerable part of the programmes to support students and young scientists. According to all relevant surveys, the demand for scientifically and technically trained labour in Germany will continue to rise. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that an above-average number of scientists in Germany will retire over the next few years because they have reached the age-limit.

The availability of highly qualified labour is a decisive factor for success or failure in an ever stronger competition of the knowledge societies of the 21st century. An innovation policy which is to live up to the challenges of global competition must attach great importance to renewing and promoting education and training.

Support for young scientists by institutions of higher education and non-university research institutions is therefore of particular importance. The Federal Government will continue to contribute to this in future.

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  topic Science

  Initiative for Excellence

  The continuation of the Initiative for Excellence will provide a secure basis for world-class research at universities. Successful projects that were started in the first two rounds can now be continued and new projects for the development of world-class research can be realized.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1321.php)
   
  
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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Higher Education Pact

  With the Higher Education Pact, which is to run until 2020, the Federal Government and the Länder want to give an additional 275,000 new university entrants the opportunity to take up their studies.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/6142.php)
   
  

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  topic Science

  The New BAföG

  We want all young people to be able to pursue qualifications that suit their talents and interests, regardless of their background. To achieve this, we have made further improvements to the Federal Training Assistance Act, or BAföG for short. The changes will increase the number of people eligible for support and raise the rates of funding. About 870,000 students at secondary schools and universities currently receive BAföG support, a number that will continue to rise.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/892.php)
   
  
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  topic Education

  Aufstieg wird gefördert. Meister-BAföG, das Aufstiegsfortbildungsförderungsgesetz

  Das AFBG oder sog. Meister-BAföG unterstützt mit finanziellen Mitteln die berufliche Aufstiegsfortbildung von Handwerkern und anderen Fachkräften und will Existenzgründungen erleichtern. Das Gesetz ist ein umfassendes Förderinstrument für die berufliche Fortbildung in allen Berufsbereichen. Vorausgesetzt wird der Abschluss einer Erstausbildung oder ein vergleichbarer Berufsabschluss nach dem Berufsbildungsgesetz oder der Handwerksordnung.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/851.php)
   
  
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  topic Education

  Lifelong Learning Programme: European education programme for all

  The EU Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP) was launched on 1 January 2007. With a budget of almost 7 billion euros, the biggest European education programme to date is funding European exchanges of learners and teachers in all age groups and European cooperation of education institutions over the period 2007 to 2013.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/919.php)
   
  

Promotion of the gifted

People have different talents; each and everyone has his/her strengths. Discovering these strengths and making the most of them deserves appreciation and support. The Federal Government has made promotion of different gifts and talents one of its objectives in education policy - at schools, at university and on the job.

Promoting talented pupils and adolescents

Special talents need special promotion. The BMBF wants to make talents visible as models. In the preschool and school area, promotion of the gifted is, above all, a task of the Länder. The Federal Government supports their policy by means of research projects and national competitions, such as "Jugend forscht - Young Researchers" , the "National Competition in Foreign Languages" as well as the science Olympics (Internet addresses: www.wettbewerbe.info; www.bundeswettbewerbe.de).

National competitions provide young people with entirely different opportunities in comparison with everyday work at schools to realize their ideas and test out their skills. This applies in particular to scientific experiments and technical developments. Mathematics and physics, chemistry and computer sciences are exciting subjects for many young people. However, during classes at school there is unfortunately not enough time to live up to young people's joy in experimenting.

Youth competitions provide new objectives for young people dealing with science. The great interest in BMBF-funded youth competitions and many clever contributions prove that many young people have a talent for research.

In the competitions, young people are to be given the opportunity to discover the fascination of research and the joy of science.

The guideline "Finding and promoting gifted children" is to contribute to recognizing and better understanding gifted and particularly talented children and adolescents. Furthermore, it provides extensive information on possibilities of counselling and funding provided by different institutions. In addition, the BMBF supports the Deutsche SchülerAkademie (German Pupils' Academy), which in its summer courses encourages students, inter alia, to take up higher education earlier than is usual.

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  topic Education

  Youth Competitions

  National competitions offer young people much better opportunities than regular classroom work for realizing their ideas and comparing with others. This applies in particular to scientific experiments and technological developments and, of course, to the areas of art, culture and music. In order to arouse young people's interest in science and research, the BMBF is supporting various competitions
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/432.php)
   
  

Promoting particularly gifted students and young scientists

Promoting particularly gifted students and young scientists is high on the social and education policy agenda. The future development of our country needs the contributions of these extraordinarily talented minds. The Federal Government therefore provides the eleven organizations for the promotion of young talent (Begabtenförderungswerke) - mostly foundations - with considerable funds for their work and thus supports many talented students and graduate students each year. Annual funds currently amount to €87.7 million. (www.begabtenfoerderungswerke.de).

An important aspect of support for postgraduate students is participation in research work at universities, the centres of the Helmholtz Association, the institutes of the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer Society and the Leibniz Science Association, the Federal Research Institutes, the German Humanities Institutes Abroad and others. This participation is supported financially by the BMBF.

The BMBF funds grants for doctoral students through the eleven Begabtenförderungswerke. Applications for such research grants can be submitted directly to the Begabtenförderungswerke and are awarded in a selection process. An exception is the German National Merit Foundation (Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes), which requires a proposal by a higher education teacher or a head of school.

The maximum funding rate is €920 (family bonus €155, research flat rate €100). The income of the recipients is only taken into account if it surpasses €3,070 p.a. (net). The standard period of funding is two years. The maximum is four years. Periods abroad can be funded, doctoral studies at universities abroad only in well-founded exceptional cases. Non-nationals with a higher education degree earned abroad can receive funding if they are accepted by a German institution of higher education for doctoral studies. About 2,800 doctoral students currently receive funding from the Begabtenförderungswerke.

In addition, the Länder also support doctoral students with grants awarded by their own institutions of higher education, mostly on the basis of their own laws to promote graduate students.
 

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  topic Science

  The Helmholtz Association

  15 scientific-technical and medical-biological research centres whose mission is to pursue long-term research objectives of the government and society have joined forces in the Helmholtz Association. The Association contributes to shaping our future by linking research and technology development with innovative prospects of application and prevention. It therefore identifies and works on major, pressing issues of society, science and industry by means of strategic and programmatic cutting-edge research. The Helmholtz Association conducts research on highly complex systems using large-scale equipment and scientific infrastructures together with national and international partners. The Helmholtz Centres enjoy a large measure of scientific autonomy in fulfilling their tasks.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/238.php)
   
  
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  topic Science

  Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (MPG)

  The Max Planck Society (MPG) supports non-university research and conducts basic research in the sciences and humanities and in engineering and the life sciences in its own institutes. About 95% of the MPG funds come from the public purse, the remaining 5% from membership fees, donations and own earnings. Institution-based support in 2006 amounts to €1,022 million (target), this is an increase of 3.0% over the previous year. The Federal Government and the Länder contribute 50% each to the public funds.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/227.php)
   
  

• topic Science

  Leibniz Science Association

  Due to their national importance and the national science-policy interest in their funding, the institutions of the Leibniz Science Association (formerly "Blue List Institutions") are funded by the Federal Government and the Länder as independent research institutions and institutions with a service function for research. The basis for funding is Article 2 Para. 1 Nos. 5 and 6 of the "Framework Agreement between the Federal Government and the Länder on Joint Funding of Research under Article 91 b of the Basic Law" of 28 November 1975.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/243.php)
   
  

• topic Science

  Foundation for German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA)

  The Foundation for German Humanities Institutes Abroad (DGIA) is a federal foundation with legal capacity under public law and is located in Bonn. It was established by federal law on 1 July 2002. The new Foundation supports the Humanities Institutes abroad which were formerly financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and worked under different legal forms.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/3796.php)