Last week, on 2nd May 2017, the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Brigitte Zypries, opened the celebration for the anniversary of “40 years of energy research programmes in the German Federal Government” in the historic conference rooms of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Berlin. She emphasised that research and development are important components in the large modernisation and investment project for energy transformation in Germany.

Around 150 guests from industry and the science community came to Berlin on the invitation of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi). During the opening ceremony, Ms Zypries, Federal Minister, explained that energy research must be tightly coupled to energy provision, “Today and in the future, we need outstanding energy research to convert our energy provision to use more renewable energies and to be more energy efficient.”

In his commemorative speech, the former German Federal Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Volker Hauff, spoke of the historic development of the energy research programme and its beginnings. He stated that energy research is an important element of energy policy and that it has gained new political and social support by the consistent decision making in favour of the energy transformation. He added that this is reflected in the current direction of the 6th energy research programme.

The panel discussion on “Energy innovations: From laboratory to market” at the specialist conference afterwards addressed important impulses for the future of energy research with representatives from the science community and industry. Marianne Haug of the University of Hohenheim argued for business models in order to break into markets. The technology profiles that were developed within the BMWi’s strategic model project entitled “Trends and perspective in energy research” formed the basis of the workshops.

In their joint summary both Dr Rodoula Tryfonidou and Dr Georg Menzen from BMWi emphasised that a broad consultation process has been launched for the coming 7th energy research programme, which is currently in preparation. Dialogue with the industry, the science community and the political sector shall be included in the process to a greater extent. The findings from this process are published at energieforschung.de on an ongoing basis.

(jp)