Germany’s federal and state governments will allot €25.3 billion ($31.6 billion) to special programs in research and higher education over the next six years. Most of it will be for universities. The federal government and states continue to provide about €20 billion to universities by 2020 to offset rising student numbers. The budgets of four nonuniversity research organizations, which run 254 institutes and research centers and have combined budgets of about €7.9 billion, will grow 3% annually until 2020. The funds are not allocated for specific areas, but research priorities include renewable energy and health. The federal government will next year increase by 5% support for the main agency awarding grants for university research to €2.95 billion, with an annual 3% increase thereafter. Government ministers agreed to continue the university competition for “top-up” funds. The €4.6 billion program was set to expire in 2017. Total annual R&D expenditure in Germany is about €100 billion, with around two-thirds of the funds from corporate sources.

Source: Nature