03.01 Science & Technology
Research policy at the BMFTR
Since 6 May 2025 Dorothee Bär has led a ministry that no longer runs education but has gained space, technology policy and the High-Tech Agenda. This page explains what the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space does, what it pays for, where federal power ends and the Länder begin, and which research questions have defined her first period in office.
The organisational decree turns the education and research ministry into the BMFTR
Source: BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 131Core budget (Einzelplan 30) adopted for 2026, before special-fund resources
Source: Deutscher BundestagGermany's R&D spending as a share of GDP in 2024, a record €137.1bn
Source: Forschung & Lehre / BuFI 2026Clusters of Excellence funded from 1 January 2026 under the joint federal–state Excellence Strategy
Source: DFG01 — Institutional roleA ministry rebuilt
Verified fact
When Friedrich Merz's cabinet took office on 6 May 2025, the Chancellor's organisational decree (Organisationserlass) of the same day redrew the boundaries of several departments. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), for decades the federal government's main research funder, became the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt, BMFTR). Dorothee Bär, a CSU member of the Bundestag since 2002, was appointed to lead it.
The change was more than a new name. The ministry gave up education, its largest public-facing policy field, and in exchange took on responsibilities that had previously sat with the economics and transport ministries. The result is a department that combines three roles: a research funder for universities and research organisations, a technology-policy ministry responsible for the government's key-technology strategy, and the federal government's space ministry.
One boundary is worth stating clearly because it is often blurred. Digital policy in the narrower sense, including the modernisation of public administration, belongs to the separate Federal Ministry for Digital and State Modernisation (BMDS). The BMFTR is responsible for the development of digital technologies as a research and technology field, not for running digital government. Bär's earlier work as Commissioner for Digitalisation is covered on the digitalisation page.
02 — The decreeWhat moved in, what moved out
The organisational decree (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 131) lists the transfers precisely. Quantum technologies and fusion research, both long-standing research-ministry fields, stayed where they were.
Moved in — from the economics ministry
- Space policy, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR)
- Core questions of innovation and technology policy
- Development of digital technologies
- The High-Tech Agenda
- Gigafactories
- SPRIND, the Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation
- Games
Moved in — from the transport ministry
- Funding for U-space and Advanced Air Mobility
- Earth observation
- Satellite navigation and satellite communications
- The German authority for the Galileo Public Regulated Service (PRS)
Moved out — to the new BMBFSFJ
- General, school and vocational education
- Lifelong learning
- The education research related to these fields
Stayed
- Quantum technologies
- Fusion research
- Research funding for universities and research organisations
The education portfolio joined family, seniors, women and youth in a new Federal Ministry of Education, Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ). Within the BMFTR, a new directorate “R – Raumfahrt und Sicherheit” (space and security) was created to bundle the federal government's space responsibilities; this is described in Bundestag printed paper 21/1232. Details of internal organisation can change, so this page treats the directorate as the structure reported in that document.
Third-party assessment The split did not go unquestioned. Bundestag documents from 2025 record concerns about the new interfaces between education and research, for example in teacher training research or the transition from school to university. These are structural questions about the government's design, not criticism of Bär personally; they are discussed further under criticism and controversies.
03 — MoneyThe budget, 2025 and 2026
The ministry's budget is Einzelplan 30 of the federal budget. Because 2025 was a transition year in which the old BMBF structures were still being unwound, comparisons between years should be read with care.
| Item | Amount | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Budget 2025 | €22.4bn | Core budget in the year of the reorganisation |
| Government draft 2026 | €21.3bn | First reading in the Bundestag, September 2025 |
| Adopted 2026 | €21.82bn | Second reading 28 November 2025; €0.58bn below 2025 |
| Special fund Infrastructure & Climate Neutrality | €923m | Additional 2026 resources outside the core budget |
| Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) | €718m | Additional 2026 resources outside the core budget |
| Total available 2026 | ≈ €23.5bn | Core budget plus both funds |
| of which space, 2026 | ≈ €2.4bn | National programme and ESA contributions |
Analysis Two readings of the same numbers circulate. The government emphasises that, with special funds included, the ministry has almost €23.5bn available in 2026. Critics point to the fact that the core budget fell compared with 2025, and that money from special funds is earmarked and less flexible. In the 2026 budget debate, Green MPs including Ayse Asar worried that scientific selection procedures could be bypassed and that money could be concentrated in Bavaria; Sonja Lemke of Die Linke criticised spending freezes on construction and transfer programmes. The detailed picture, including institutional funding, is on the science and research funding page.
04 — FederalismBund and Länder: who is responsible for what
Germany's constitution gives the Länder primary responsibility for education and for their universities. The federal government cannot simply run higher education. What it can do is defined in Article 91b of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz), which allows the federation and the Länder to cooperate, on the basis of agreements, in funding science, research and teaching in cases of supra-regional importance. Since a constitutional amendment in 2014, this cooperation can include long-term federal funding of universities, not only time-limited projects.
In practice, this means that most of the big structures in German research are joint federal–state arrangements, coordinated in the Joint Science Conference (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz, GWK). The federal research minister sits at the table alongside sixteen state science ministers. Large decisions, such as the selection of Clusters of Excellence or the financing keys for the research organisations, are negotiated rather than decreed.
Analysis This shapes what any federal research minister can claim credit for. Bär controls federal project funding, the High-Tech Agenda, space and SPRIND directly. For universities and the large research organisations she is one powerful partner among several. This page tries to keep that distinction visible.
05 — InstitutionsThe research landscape
German publicly funded research rests on four large non-university organisations, the universities, and the German Research Foundation, which funds research at universities.
- Max Planck Society — around 85 institutes devoted to basic research, from astrophysics to the humanities.
- Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft — around 76 institutes doing applied research, much of it under contract for industry.
- Helmholtz Association — 18 large research centres that operate major infrastructure, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR).
- Leibniz Association — 96 institutions covering a broad range, from natural sciences to economics, social sciences and research museums.
- Universities — the backbone of research and doctoral training, funded mainly by the Länder.
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) — the self-governing research funding organisation of German science, financed jointly by the federation and the Länder, which selects projects by peer review.
The ministry's tools differ by actor. The research organisations receive institutional funding, shared between federation and Länder. Universities and companies compete for federal project funding in programmes run by the ministry and its project management agencies. The DFG distributes money according to its own scientific procedures.
06 — ExcellenceThe Excellence Strategy
Verified fact The Excellence Strategy is the federal–state programme that succeeded the Excellence Initiative. On 22 May 2025, shortly after the new government took office, the Excellence Commission selected 70 Clusters of Excellence from 98 proposals: 45 renewals and 25 new clusters at 43 universities in 13 Länder. They receive €539m a year for seven years, starting on 1 January 2026.
The decision was the outcome of a long scientific review organised by the DFG and was taken in a joint federal–state body in which the science ministers of the federation and the Länder sit alongside international experts. It should not be attributed to Bär personally. What falls into her term is the funding period that began in January 2026, which the federation finances jointly with the host Länder.
07 — Research security
Open science in a less open world
One of the clearest new themes of Bär's tenure is research security: the question of how universities and institutes can remain internationally open while protecting sensitive knowledge from misuse by foreign states.
Verified fact On 19 December 2025 the federal government, the Länder and the science organisations agreed key points for a National Platform for Research Security. The BMFTR leads it and is its sole funder until 2029. The platform is to start in autumn 2026 and be fully operational from January 2027. Its purpose is to give researchers and institutions a common point of advice, rather than leaving each university to assess risks alone.
The urgency became concrete in October 2026, when Bär presented the results of a special investigation into the CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security in Saarbrücken. According to reporting by Die Rheinpfalz, the investigation found that security-relevant knowledge could have flowed to China. The case is context for the policy, not an accusation against the minister.
„Die Welt ist massiv im Umbruch. Für Wohlstand und Souveränität in Deutschland und Europa müssen wir unsere Forschung sichern und gleichzeitig die Wissenschaftsfreiheit schützen.“
“The world is in massive upheaval. For prosperity and sovereignty in Germany and Europe we must secure our research while protecting academic freedom.”
Research freedom
Article 5(3) of the Basic Law guarantees the freedom of science, research and teaching. Any security regime has to be reconciled with it: it can advise, inform and set conditions for funding, but it cannot turn the state into the judge of what researchers may study.
Analysis The tension in Bär's own formulation is deliberate. “Secure our research” and “protect academic freedom” pull in different directions, and the platform's success will depend on whether universities experience it as support or as control.
08 — Talent
1000 Köpfe Plus: recruiting researchers
The second signature theme is international talent. Against a background of upheaval in international science, the federal government set out to make Germany a more attractive destination for researchers.
The 1000 Köpfe Plus programme, presented internationally as “Global Minds”, was launched in July 2025, according to ministry communications. It provides €602m in federal funding between 2025 and 2029 to bring international researchers to German institutions. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which reported on the programme's first year, is among the organisations involved.
Verified fact According to the DAAD, the programme reached 286 approvals in its first year, with researchers from 45 countries: 37 per cent came from Europe, 30 per cent from Asia and 20 per cent from North America.
„Das 1.000-Köpfe-Plus-Programm wirkt. Schon nach einem Jahr haben wir 286 Bewilligungen erreicht“
“The 1,000 Heads Plus programme is working. After just one year we have reached 286 approvals.”
Federal funding for 1000 Köpfe Plus, 2025–2029
Source: DAADApprovals in the first year
Source: DAADCountries of origin of the funded researchers
Source: DAADShares from Europe, Asia and North America
Source: DAADAnalysis 286 approvals is a start, not yet the thousand of the title. Whether the programme changes Germany's position will depend on what follows the first grants: permanent positions, salaries that compete internationally, and administrative procedures such as visas and recognition that the ministry does not control alone.
09 — Transfer and competitiveness
From strong science to economic strength
Germany's research system is broad and well funded by international standards. The persistent complaint is that too little of it becomes products, companies and jobs at home.
Verified fact In 2024 Germany spent a record €137.1bn on research and development, 3.17 per cent of gross domestic product. Most of this comes from business, not the state. The long-standing target of 3.5 per cent by 2025 was missed; the Federal Report on Research and Innovation (BuFI) 2026, reported in June 2026, moves the 3.5 per cent target to 2030. A small number of economies, such as South Korea and Israel, spend considerably higher shares.
Transfer — moving knowledge from laboratory to application — is where the BMFTR's new technology-policy role matters most. The planned German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI) of the previous government was not continued; the coalition agreement instead foresees an umbrella brand, “Initiative Forschung & Anwendung”, according to Bundestag documents. SPRIND, now in the ministry's remit, funds high-risk breakthrough projects. These instruments are covered on the innovation page, and the government's key-technology strategy on the High-Tech Agenda page.
Supporters argue
Bundling research, technology and space in one ministry ends a long-standing split between the research funder and the economics ministry, and gives key technologies a single political owner.
Talent recruitment and research security respond to real shifts in global science, and the ministry moved quickly on both.
Critics argue
A falling core budget is at odds with the rhetoric of a “research nation”, and earmarked special funds are no substitute for reliable institutional funding.
One year into the term, the Greens' research spokesperson Ayse Asar said the government could not answer central questions about the actual impact of the money spent; the ministry replied that its projects were progressing in planning and implementation.
Analysis Bär came to research policy from digital and family policy, not from a long career in science politics, a point noted on the biography page. Her tenure so far has been defined less by changes to the classical research system, which moves slowly and jointly with the Länder, than by new priorities layered on top of it: technology strategy, space, security and talent. How these fit together is the subject of the technology policy page.