The German Research Foundation (DFG) has presented a strategy paper laying out their Europe Strategy, which will guide the organisation’s approach to European cooperation until 2030. The DFG is Germany’s national funding organisation for sciences and the humanities and stressed in its strategy the importance of strong national organisations for the European Research Area (ERA).   

The DFG uses its strategy to set out 10 objectives to guide its activities along its three operating principles - promote, access, shape.  

Part of the objectives is the expansion of cooperation with other European funding organisations (Objective 1), and active participation in the Weave initiative, which allows German researchers to apply for funding for research projects with partners from six European countries (Objective 2). Another goal is the development of a set of value-based principles for research collaborations with non-European partners, particularly regarding an appropriate approach to dealing with risks (Objective 3). This aims to clarify the risks and opportunities of research collaboration.  

Multiple of the presented objectives focus on involvement in the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Objectives 4, 6-7), the implementation of the ERA Policy Agenda (Objective 8), and the creation of conditions for shaping research at the EU level (Objective 9). Lastly, the DFG aims to involve itself more in EU legislative processes that lie outside of the scope of research politics but hold significant importance to the domain of research (Objective 10).  

The new strategy is meant to serve as an internal guidance and an explanation of the DFG’s activities externally and is designed against the backdrop of the changing political landscape and the new priorities of the DFG’s European activities. 

Learn more in the press release.