Research and technology

Germany supports comprehensive climate protection agreement

Will the international community be able to make concrete steps towards global climate protection? This will be the decisive question when representatives from around 200 states meet from November 28 to December 9, 2011 in Durban, South Africa, at the 17th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop 17) to negotiate an agreement for the years following 2012. That is when the Kyoto Protocol expires, so far the most important instrument in international climate change policy.

Climate protection

International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)

Global challenges demand global solutions rather than go-it-alone efforts. In view of climate change and the growing scarcity of conventional resources their increased use is an absolute must. The Federal Government therefore launched an initiative to found an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) with the aim of accelerating the expansion of renewables around the world. IRENA was founded in 2009.

"Connecting worlds of knowledge" – a research and academic relations initiative

Since 2009 the Federal Foreign Office has been expanding its support for international academic exchanges. This includes a number of new scholarship programmes run by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the establishment – in cooperation with research organizations and companies with a strong research focus – of "German science fora" and the creation of new centres of excellence for teaching and research at universities abroad.

Research and technology

Today, research and development-intensive industries account for more than half of all industrial production in Germany. Here you will find information about the major German research institutions.