topic Hightech Strategy

Life Sciences

The new century is the century of the life sciences. They contribute considerably to understanding living organisms and ecological systems. They provide unprecedented opportunities for understanding genetic diseases or diseases triggered by external impacts and facilitate new therapies. At the same time, the life sciences have great potential for the creation of new, future-oriented jobs. The political task - as envisaged under the BMBF biotechnology programme - is to combine innovations with social responsibility.

The life sciences will be a decisive factor in the 21st century. The fundamental new findings in this area of science, the progress made with related technologies and their broad application in health, environmental and nutrition research will have a far-reaching impact on health care, the control of environmental hazards and on life as a whole. At the same time, the life sciences offer much potential for the creation and preservation of new, challenging jobs.

This opens up major fields of work for the BMBF, and these will become even more important in the future. Research funding in the life sciences is provided under the framework programme "Biotechnology - Using and Shaping its Opportunities", the programme "Health Research - Research for People" as well as by means of the institutional funding of non-university research institutions.

Genome research is an important basis for progress and new findings in the life sciences. The BMBF therefore provides funding for projects which aim to sequence and analyse the plant genome and the genome of microorganisms.  In the area of human genome research, support is given to the German Human Genome Project (GHGP) and to the National Genome Research Network, which was established in 2001 as part of the Federal Government's programme for investing in the future and is funded from the interest earned from the auctioning of UMTS licences.

The new approaches in the life sciences are being discussed by the general public and people are aware of the benefits and risks involved.  In order to be able to base decision-making on convincing facts and arguments, the BMBF supports scientific research projects on the ethical, legal and economic aspects of health research and bioscientific research.

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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Prevention

  It is popular wisdom that prevention is the best medicine. A BMBF research programme launched in 2003 sets out to discover why, and to what extent, prevention helps to improve people's health and quality of life.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1236.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Alternatives to animal testing

  The long-standing BMBF tradition of funding research and development projects on methods to replace animal testing is one of a kind throughout the world. It is the most comprehensive and longest-running funding programme in the field. A total of 400 research projects with a volume of about 120 million euros have been funded in the last thirty years. The BMBF's systematic support for this field will continue in the future as part of the new call for "Alternative Methods to Animal Testing," which entered into force on 17 June 2011.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1040.php)
   
  
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  topic Hightech Strategy

  Medical Technology - meeting the challenges of the future

  The Innovations in Medical Technology national strategy process is taking shape. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, and the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin have appointed a committee of high-ranking experts from the fields of politics, industry, science and health care. This Steering Committee will bring together experts along the entire innovation chain in order to jointly develop recommendations to promote coherent innovation policy in medical technology. The Federal Government is taking up the challenges and opportunities of this field by adopting a whole-of-government approach in keeping with its High-Tech Strategy.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1170.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Health Research Programme

  The aim of the Federal Government's health research policy is that everyone should be able to profit from the results of research. New and improved diagnostic procedures and therapies are being developed to help sick people more effectively. And new approaches to and ways of prevention are being sought which can contribute to stopping illnesses from even occurring. Medical progress will also help to reduce costs. New operational techniques will enable less invasive treatment and, at the same time, shorten the patient's stay in hospital. The BMBF is providing health research with funds of about 5.5 billion euros between 2011 and 2014.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/gesundheitsforschung.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Basic Research in the Life Sciences

  Molecular life sciences enable us to gain ever deeper insights into life processes. Since the spectacular decoding of the structure of the human genome in June 2000 at the latest, we have been aware of the enormous dynamic of the increase in knowledge. Biomedical research opens up to us a great variety of applications.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/979.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Bioeconomy - new concepts for the use of natural resources

  The better we can describe and understand the elements and structure of biological systems in their complexity and predict their reaction to external factors, the more will we be able to use them for technologies that benefit humankind and the environment. Biotechnology is an important driver in this process. With the "National Research Strategy BioEconomy 2030", the Federal Government is laying the foundation for realizing a vision of a sustainable bio-based economy by 2030 which produces sufficient healthy food to feed the world and supplies quality products made from renewable resources.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1024.php)
   
  
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  topic Research

  Ethics and law

  Research on embryonic stem cells, patents on genes? How far does the freedom of research go and where are its social limits? Research on ethical, legal and social aspects of the biosciences attempts to find answers to these questions. It is the task of an innovation-oriented research policy to strike a balance between ethics and progress and to accompany and support all legislative processes touching on aspects of bioscience research. The most recent example of this is the Law allowing the import of embryonic stem cells, which entered into force at the beginning of July 2002.
  more (URL: http://www.bmbf.de/en/1056.php)