Research and innovation are extremely important for Germany. New insights are generated by research, and new ways of creating value are opened up by technical, organisational, and other innovations. Production, value-creation and employment tend to increase much more in companies which are highly innovative. The public sector can become more efficient and customer-oriented through the implementation of innovations, which also have a positive influence on people's welfare and their quality of life.Against this background, Germany's politicians have increasingly been considering how best to promote research and innovation, and where the country ranks in the international innovation contest. The Federal Government of Germany therefore decided in 2006 to establish an independent Commission of Experts on Research and Innovation (EFI), with the remit to analyse the structures, trends, performance, and prospects of the German research and innovation system, and to formulate policy recommendations for its further development. This report is the result of our work to achieve this goal.

On behalf of the Federal Government of Germany, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation presents its fifth report.

Maintaining the innovation capabilities of firms, employees and institutions is a key component for the generation of sustainable growth, employment, and high income in industrial societies. Gaining insights into the German innovation system and the institutional framework is as important to policy making as is data on the endowment of the German economy with factors fostering innovation and their recent development. Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research has repeatedly commissioned reports on the competitive strength of the German innovation system since the mid-eighties. The considerable attention that the public and the political, administrative and economic actors have paid to these reports in the past few years proves the strong interest in the assessment of and indicators for the dynamics behind innovation activities. The present study closely follows the pattern of those carried out before. It has been extended, however, to include an extensive discussion on indicators for technological performance and an outline of the key features of the German innovation system.

On behalf of the Federal Government of Germany, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation presents its fourth report.

On behalf of the Federal Government of Germany, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation presents its sixth report.

On behalf of the Federal Government of Germany, the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation presents its third report.The format of the report has been revised this year. Part A of the EFI report 2010 discusses current developments and future challenges. Part B of the report then addresses five core topics. The indicators for the status of research and innovation in Part C are presented in a new format, which we hope will be more readily accessible for decision-makers in particular.The financial and economic crisis is not yet over, but there are signs of moderate growth potential for 2010. The German innovation system has done fairly well in the crisis. In addition, appropriate importance has been attached to research, innovation and education in the plans of the new Federal Government. As welcome as these declarations of intent are, it is important to follow these up by adopting specific measures in various key areas.In this third report, the following five topics are addressed in detail. First, the Expert Commission analyses the overall structure of the German innovation system and in particular the role of non-university research (Section B 1). It then presents an interim assessment of the Bologna Process, which is currently the subject of lively public debate (Section B 2). Twenty years after German reunification, research and innovation policies in eastern Germany are reviewed (Section B 3). The Expert Commission also considers Germany's technological performance in the field of electromobility (Section B 4), and comments on the efforts of the European Commission to introduce a European Union patent and a unified patent court system (Section B 5).Highest priorities for the Federal Government should be the introduction of R&D tax support, improvements to the conditions for Business Angels and venture capital, and the systematic improvement of Germany's education and research systems. Broad tax advantages for companies and individual tax-payers are no substitute for these urgently needed measures. Instruments which have been shown to have failed, such as the research premium, should be abandoned. Germany continues to do well in terms of creativity, inventiveness and openness to innovations. Despite financial constraints it is important to target investments in order to maintain and expand these strengths.