Effective Knowledge Transfer and Greater Speed for Growth, Sovereignty and Progress

"Germany has an outstanding scientific landscape. However, the full potential of our innovative capacity any only be realized when insights are translated swiftly into market-ready products, processes, and services. For this reason, accelerating transfer is not a marginal issue, it is a matter of great importance to society," says Hanselka. "The measures outlined in the report are a step in the right direction. What matters now is closely aligning them to the goals of the High-Tech Agenda Germany and implementing them consistently. Effective transfer requires clear responsibilities, reliable funding instruments, and stronger, trust-based dovetailing of research, industry, and the public sector. Within Germany's highly diverse science landscape, Fraunhofer stands out among research organizations for its capacity to turn scientific findings into real-world applications. This bridging principle needs to be strengthened across the entire innovation system to ensure that new ideas can be put into practice more quickly."

The government as an anchor customer and catalyst

"The government itself is a powerful lever for accelerating transfer. This is also emphasized in the report by the Council of Economic Experts. As an anchor customer, the government can address key challenges facing Germany as an industrial base by using generative AI to develop use cases. One pressing example is the systematic digitalization of public administration, including the envisaged Once Only Principle. We now need to move quickly by having the government initiate the development, specification and deployment of high-performance digital and AI-enabled solutions, acting as both a role model and a pioneer. German research and industry urgently need greater momentum beyond individual corporate chatbot projects-momentum that can generate impact along the entire value chain," says Hanselka.

"Lighthouse projects of this kind not only generate efficiency gains in the public sector, they also have a ripple effect across the wider economy, creating reference use cases that carry innovation into other industries and trigger investment."

AI "made in Germany" needs a strong data foundation and targeted support

"Artificial intelligence is a key technology across nearly all value chains. But powerful and trustworthy AI models "made in Germany" require a high-quality data foundation, in both quality and scale. The planned Research Data Act (FDG) is an important step towards facilitating access to public data for research and development and providing legal certainty. At the same time, the FDG should be advanced in a bold and ambitious manner: We need a mandatory data-sharing requirement for additional public institutions, such as the German Digital Library, and a clear framework enabling the publicly supported integration of suitable private-sector data. Only then can we develop competitive models grounded in European values and standards," says Hanselka. "To meet the substantial and immediate demand for computing resources required for generative AI models, AI infrastructures must be given even greater political priority than it has to date. For example, priorities for AI model training should be reviewed and reassessed relative to other disciplines that currently require GPU capacity in high-performance computing (HPC) centers, while ensuring that other critical fields such as climate research and medicine are not neglected. Work should also begin on establishing several AI computing centers for both research and practical application.

Strategic strengthening of security-relevant research

With regard to security-related research, Hanselka says: "Current geopolitical developments underscore just how important technological sovereignty is, especially in the security domain. The EFI report reinforces our view that we should focus specifically on expanding and strengthening centers of excellence in security-related research and teaching. We also support the call to give greater weight to research and innovation policy considerations in Bundeswehr procurement processes. Strategic procurement can be a powerful tool for accelerating innovation cycles and safeguarding industrial capabilities within the country. In addition to this, we need more lean, low-bureaucracy innovation spaces where industry, academia and policymakers can work together to shorten innovation cycles and enable faster deployment of technologies within the Bundeswehr."

Facilitating innovation in SMEs

"As an innovation partner to small and medium-sized enterprises, we welcome the proposed measures to improve the framework conditions for innovation in the SME sector. Simplifying the application process for the research tax incentive, reducing bureaucratic hurdles and making it easier for skilled professionals to immigrate are key prerequisites for boosting innovation momentum," says Hanselka. "Germany has the potential to further expand its technological strength. What matters now is accelerating transfer, pushing ahead with strategically important future technologies, and putting the right framework conditions in place. Fraunhofer stands ready to actively pursue this path together with policymakers and industry."