10% of output AI-based
Ten per cent of Germany's economic output should be “AI-based” by 2030.
03.03 Science & Technology
The High-Tech Agenda Germany
Adopted by the federal cabinet on 30 July 2025, the High-Tech Agenda Deutschland is the central strategy of Dorothee Bär's ministry: six key technologies, around €18bn to 2029, a set of dated flagship goals and, since May 2026, technology roadmaps that turn ambitions into milestones.
- 01Artificial intelligence
- 02Quantum technologies
- 03Microelectronics
- 04Biotechnology
- 05Fusion & climate-neutral energy
- 06Climate-neutral mobility
30.7.2025
Cabinet adoption; submitted to the Bundestag as Drucksache 21/1100
Source: Bundestag, hib 346/2025≈ €18bn
Planned for the agenda up to 2029
Source: Bundesregierung€5.5bn
Of that sum from special funds
Source: Bundesregierung6
First roadmaps presented to the research committee on 20 May 2026
Source: Bundestag, hib 419/202601 — Background
Twenty years of German technology strategies
The High-Tech Agenda is not the first attempt to give German research a strategic direction. It is the latest in a line of federal strategies, each reflecting the priorities of its government.
- 2006
High-Tech Strategy
The first cross-government strategy for research and innovation, launched under Chancellor Angela Merkel and updated several times, most recently as the High-Tech Strategy 2025.
- 2023
Future Strategy
The previous coalition replaced it with the “Zukunftsstrategie Forschung und Innovation”, organised around broad missions rather than individual technologies.
- 2025
High-Tech Agenda Germany
The Merz government returns to a narrower list of key technologies, with dated goals, dedicated money and an owner: Bär's reorganised ministry.
Analysis What distinguishes the 2025 agenda is less its list of technologies — AI, quantum and biotechnology have featured in every strategy of the past decade — than its form. It names fewer fields, attaches years and numbers to its goals, and commits to roadmaps that can be checked. That makes it easier to evaluate, and easier to criticise, than its predecessors.
It also reflects a political choice. The coalition agreement of 2025 put economic growth and competitiveness at the centre of government policy. The agenda translates that priority into research policy: its stated aim is not only scientific excellence but more value creation in Germany, from new companies and production to jobs. Critics from the research community have long warned that such framing can crowd out curiosity-driven basic research, which receives most of its money through other channels, such as the research organisations and the DFG.
02 — Strategic objectives
Six technologies around one idea
The agenda's premise is that Germany spreads its research money too thinly and turns too little of it into value creation at home.
Instead of naming dozens of priorities, the government selected six technologies in which it sees both scientific strength and economic or strategic importance. For each, the agenda combines research funding with infrastructure, transfer and, where needed, regulation. The overarching aims, as presented by the federal government, are to strengthen Germany's value creation, its technological sovereignty and its ability to compete internationally.
The High-Tech Agenda was one of the responsibilities that moved to the BMFTR from the economics ministry under the organisational decree of 6 May 2025. Bär's ministry is therefore the agenda's owner, but many goals depend on other departments, on the Länder and on the European Union.
Analysis The diagram shows the six technologies as a network rather than a list. They are not independent: AI accelerates drug discovery and materials research, quantum computers need advanced microelectronics, and fusion and mobility both depend on new materials and energy storage.
Diagram: the six key technologies. “Chips” stands for microelectronics; “Fusion” for fusion and climate-neutral energy generation; “Mobility” for technologies for climate-neutral mobility.
03 — Flagship goals
Seven promises with dates attached
The government's submission to the Bundestag (Drucksache 21/1100) names flagship goals for the key technologies. They are reproduced here as government commitments, labelled as political positions; none is yet a result.
An AI gigafactory
At least one European AI gigafactory located in Germany. The siting depends on the EU process.
Two error-corrected quantum computers
“At least two error-corrected quantum computers at European top level”. See quantum technology.
Chip-design competence centre
A centre to build chip-design skills and capacity by 2026.
Fusion action plan
A government action plan as the next step towards a fusion power plant in Germany; adopted by cabinet on 1 October 2025. See fusion research.
AI-driven drug development
Projects in AI-driven drug development to start from the second quarter of 2026.
Battery competence clusters
Competence clusters for battery research from 2026.
Three goals for year one
Large funding initiatives for next-generation AI models; Germany's first research satellite for quantum communication in operation; the fusion action plan.
04 — Roadmaps
From goals to milestones: the roadmaps of 20 May 2026
The agenda promised technology roadmaps, documents that set out for each field what should happen when, who is responsible and how progress will be measured.
- 30 July 2025
Cabinet adopts the agenda
Six key technologies, flagship goals, funding to 2029.
- 1 October 2025
Fusion action plan
The first flagship goal turned into a cabinet decision.
- 20 May 2026
First six roadmaps
Bär presents roadmaps for AI, microelectronics, biotechnology, fusion, batteries and quantum to the Bundestag research committee.
- Six weeks from May 2026
Public consultation
The first versions are opened for comment by researchers, companies and the public.
- To follow
Robotics and climate-neutral energy
Two further roadmaps announced to complete the set.
| Field | Milestone | By |
|---|---|---|
| Quantum | First logical qubits in Germany | 2028 |
| Quantum | At least three data centres with quantum computers | 2029 |
| Quantum | 25 new quantum professorships | 2030 |
| Quantum | Quantum advantage demonstrated | 2032 |
| Biotech | First approval of an mRNA cancer immunotherapy | 2028 |
| Biotech | Translation centre for gene and cell therapy | 2028 |
| AI | More than 50% of manufacturing SMEs use AI in core processes | 2029 |
| AI / robotics | “KI-Robotik-Booster” of €100m | — |
| Transfer | €115m over five years for four “Hightech-Spaces” | 5 yrs |
Source: Forschung & Lehre on the first-version roadmaps. These are draft milestones published for consultation and may change in the final versions.
Analysis The roadmaps are the most concrete part of the agenda. Dated, numerical milestones make it possible, for the first time, to check the strategy against outcomes — including by its critics.
05 — Implementation and Europe
Consultation, money and the European frame
Consultation
The roadmaps were published as first versions with a six-week public consultation, giving universities, research organisations, companies and associations a formal opportunity to comment before the documents are finalised. The government also points to dialogue formats with stakeholders — a term its critics have taken up.
Financing
Around €18bn is foreseen to 2029, of which €5.5bn comes from special funds rather than the regular budget. This dependence on earmarked funds is one reason critics question how secure the financing is beyond the current budget years.
The European context
Analysis Several of the agenda's goals can only be reached within European frameworks: AI gigafactories are an EU initiative, chip policy runs largely through the EU Chips Act, fusion through European participation in ITER, and quantum through European programmes such as the Quantum Flagship. The agenda positions Germany as a leading contributor in these frameworks rather than as an alternative to them. See European technology policy.
06 — Signature and scrutiny
“No clearer signature”
Bär has tied her ministerial record explicitly to the agenda. That makes it the yardstick by which supporters and critics alike judge her.
„Eine noch klarere Handschrift als die Hightech-Agenda kann es nicht geben“
“There could be no clearer signature than the High-Tech Agenda.”
Criticism · 2025–2026
Roadmaps, dialogue formats — and results?
The main lines of criticism come from the opposition in the Bundestag and concern impact and money, not the choice of technologies as such.
Impact
Criticism
„Die Bundesregierung spricht von strategischen Roadmaps und Dialogformaten, kann aber zentrale Fragen nicht beantworten – etwa zur tatsächlichen Wirkung der eingesetzten Mittel“
“The federal government talks about strategic roadmaps and dialogue formats but cannot answer central questions — for instance about the actual effect of the funds deployed.” — Ayse Asar, research spokesperson of the Greens, May 2026, via Forschung & Lehre.
Budget
Criticism
The ministry's core budget for 2026 (€21.82bn) is €0.58bn lower than in 2025. In the budget debate, Green MPs worried that scientific procedures could be bypassed and money concentrated in Bavaria; the Left's Sonja Lemke criticised spending blocks on construction and transfer programmes.
Ministry's response
Documented statement
Asked about the one-year record, the ministry said the projects were “progressing in planning and implementation” (“schreiten in Planung und Umsetzung voran”).
Assessment
Analysis
Both sides have a point. Strategies take years to show effects, so a one-year verdict is premature; but without published indicators of impact, the milestones of 2028–2030 will be the first hard test.
For the wider record, see achievements and criticism and controversies; for the budget in detail, science and research funding.
07 — What to watchFive tests for the agenda
The agenda's own milestones provide the yardstick. Readers following its progress can look for the following markers, each of which is public and dated.
- The final roadmaps. Whether the first versions of May 2026 change after the public consultation, and whether the announced roadmaps for robotics and climate-neutral energy follow.
- The chip-design competence centre. The agenda promised it by 2026; whether it exists and what it does by the end of the year is the first dated test.
- The AI gigafactory. Whether one of the European AI gigafactories is located in Germany depends on decisions at EU level. A German site would fulfil a flagship goal; no site would leave it open.
- The 2028 quantum and biotech milestones. First logical qubits in Germany, the gene and cell therapy translation centre and an approved mRNA cancer immunotherapy are all due in 2028.
- The budgets of 2027 and beyond. Roughly €18bn to 2029 is planned. Whether that money survives future budget rounds, and how much of it depends on special funds, will decide whether the agenda is more than a document.
Analysis None of these tests would be decisive alone. Science does not keep to schedules, and some goals depend on Brussels or on regulators. But taken together they will show whether the agenda Bär called her clearest “signature” changed the direction of German technology policy, or mainly its vocabulary. The technology policy page places the agenda in the wider debate about sovereignty.