Throughout society and among policymakers there is broad agreement that education and research constitute crucial investments in the future. Despite the economic and financial crisis that has severely impacted many countries in Europe, Germany has continued to expand investments in these two areas. The Helmholtz Association is using this support to create a broader foundation for new technologies, products and services through its research and to secure prosperity and quality of life over the medium and long term.

RESEARCH AS AN INVEST MENT IN THE FUTURE, AND THE GROWTH OF THE HELMHOLTZ ASSOCIATION

In recent years, research policy initiatives such as the Higher Education Pact, the Excellence Initiative and the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation have added a new dynamism to the scientific community, especially through greater competition and new forms of collaboration. In the second phase of the Excellence Initiative, the Helmholtz centres – as partners of the universities – will be taking part in a total of nine institutional strategies as well as numerous excellence clusters and graduate schools. The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation ensures that non-university research organisations receive annual increases in funding, which is creating urgently needed room for manoeuvre. The Helmholtz Association is using this additional funding to increase the capacity of the research system, expand ties with partners from science and industry, improve the transfer of knowledge to the economy, and win and promote the best scientists for both scientific and administrative-technical fields.

The political framework for education and research is also improving: The planned elimination of the ban on collaboration between the federal government and state governments will ultimately lead to more options for strengthening chronically underfunded universities over the long term. The new Academic Freedom Act is designed to give research institutions more leeway in central fields such as budget-making, construction projects, equity stakes and, in particular, staffing issues. It will enhance the attractiveness of German research institutions in the competition for internationally renowned experts.

These developments are providing the Helmholtz Association with the necessary support to fulfil its mission and – through its cutting-edge research – to contribute to solving the major and pressing challenges of our time. Furthermore, the Helmholtz Association has continued to grow over the past year. The GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has been admitted as a new member, bringing the number of large, internationally acclaimed research centres united under the association’s umbrella to 18. Around 34,000 highly skilled employees are currently working to develop solutions to major challenges in the areas of climate change, human health and energy – or are engaged in the urgently needed basic research on these topics.

THE MAJOR CHALLENGES: THE ENERGY TRANSITION, CLIMATE CHANGE, WATER AND HEALTH

One of the greatest challenges currently confronting our society is the transition to renewable energy sources. The 2011 Energy Transition Resolution of the German government stipulates that by 2050 at least 80 percent of electricity demand must be met by renewable energy sources (Source BMU). In order to achieve this target, Germany requires new grid and intermediary storage solutions as well as improvements in the efficiency of all technologies. The Helmholtz Association is committed to addressing these issues and will make 135 million euros available in the coming years in order to advance the energy transition. This targeted expansion of energy research has been made possible in part by the annual increase in funds from the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. We will be investing around 63 million euros in six portfolio topics that cover gaps in research identified by experts. A total of 24 million euros will go to the Helmholtz energy initiative “Rapid Expansion of Energy Research”, which is helping to develop sustainable energy technologies in four Helmholtz Energy Alliances. The restructuring of energy provision requires not only technological solutions but also changes that will affect all members of society. New infrastructure such as power lines, pumped-storage plants and wind farms – as well as price increases and energy savings targets – must take into account the perspectives of the different stakeholders in society and must be negotiated with them to ensure that plans can be reliably implemented. In the Helmholtz Alliance ENERGY-TRANS, which will receive 8.25 million euros in funding, experts from three Helmholtz centres and four partner institutions are working to resolve the socioeconomic issues associated with the design and implementation of the energy transition. Furthermore, we have established two new Helmholtz institutes in Ulm and Freiberg, each of which will be funded with 20 million euros in the coming years. At the Helmholtz Institute for Electrochemical Energy Storage in Ulm, scientists are studying the electrochemical foundations of innovative battery systems and developing new materials for these systems. The institute is sponsored by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Ulm and has two associate partners, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research. At the Helmholtz

Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, which was founded by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, research focuses on the mining of mineral and metal resources. Scientists are currently examining how valuable raw materials can be used more efficiently, recovered from waste products and replaced by other materials. The topic of energy is closely related to climate change and other global challenges associated with the finite nature of natural resources and their sustainable use. These themes are at the heart of the “Science Year 2012”, which, under the heading of “Project Earth: Our Future”, is addressing the topic of sustainability from various perspectives and presenting it to the public. They are also at the heart of Helmholtz environmental research, which focuses on the climate, soil, water and biodiversity as well as on global and regional environmental changes. In addition to researching the complex and manifold interconnections in the Earth system, Helmholtz research groups are working to develop innovative policies and technologies for climate protection, adaptation strategies for inevitable changes in the global climate, and more sustainable ways of using resources. Within this context, water deserves special attention as one of our most valuable resources. In many regions of the globe, climate change, industrialisation and population growth have already resulted in a scarcity of clean water. In the new portfolio topic “Helmholtz Water Network”, five Helmholtz centres are collaborating with numerous university partners to catalogue and improve water quality and availability and to develop sustainable water management systems for the future – at both the regional and global levels. The Helmholtz Association will fund this project through 2015 with more than 21 million euros.

As demographic change progresses, we will have to devise more sustainable strategies for coping with a scarcity of resources in areas such as health care and the labour market. Helmholtz health research will make an important contribution to solving these problems. If we can prevent disease through preventive medicine and treat sick people more effectively through early diagnosis and personalised therapies, people will stay healthy and active longer, enabling us to manage demographic change. Helmholtz health research is helping to elucidate the causes of major common diseases and to develop new methods for their prevention, early diagnosis and treatment. Working with university medical centres, we have considerably expanded translational research in order to apply knowledge more effectively; in this area we are also relying on strategic relationships with business partners. Most importantly, the Helmholtz health centres are important partners of the German Centres for Health Research, which have been established and funded by the Federal Research Ministry in order to optimize the translational process and improve the prevention and treatment of common diseases. Over the past year, four new German Centres for Health Research were established in the fields of infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary illness and cancer. Along with the Helmholtz centres, more than one hundred universities, university hospitals and industrial partners are participating in these centres to ensure that knowledge is effectively transferred from research to applications and to pave the way for innovative and affordable health care over the long term.

Individual Helmholtz centres are also expanding ties with university partners. For example, the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch and the Charité Hospital’s research division have considerably expanded their joint research activities in the fields of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and nervous system disorders and are entertaining the option of combining parts of both facilities under a single roof. These and other strategic collaborations are pointing the way to the future. With its commitment to expanding such partnerships, the Helmholtz Association is helping to shape the research community and creating synergies and optimal conditions for successful research.

OUR MOST IMPORT ANT RESOURCE: INFRASTR UCTURE AND TALENT

Our most important resource is the people who work at the Helmholtz Association and drive research through their ideas, commitment and talent. This is why we are focusing particularly on supporting gifted staff members through a comprehensive talent management programme encompassing all levels of our organisation. With the Helmholtz Academy, we have developed a unique supplementary educational programme in the field of research management for young leaders. All our staff in research, administration and infrastructure can gain further qualifications and are given support for their career planning. Women, in particular, are benefiting from the “Taking the Lead” mentoring programme, designed to prepare them for leadership positions in science. Equal opportunity is a central goal of talent management and is of course a given when we recruit both seasoned executives and junior staff. The Helmholtz centres are training young people for demanding professions and are currently providing more than 6,000 doctoral candidates¹ with an excellent research environment for their doctoral dissertations. Each year a growing number of young scientists from around the world apply to lead a Helmholtz Young Investigators’ Group. These positions offer an excellentstart to a career in science. We are pleased that with these programmes we have been able to attractexcellent researchers from around the world and to contribute to the “brain circulation” in international science. From 2013 onwards, we will be providing additional resources for the Helmholtz Association’s recruitment initiative in order to motivate experts to take part in Helmholtz energy research.

In the research community, the Helmholtz Association is increasingly being recognised as an employer of choice that allows dedicated people to develop their talents, pursue research with highly qualified colleagues and profit from a variety of networking and collaboration opportunities. Our scientists have the opportunity to help develop and operate a unique research infrastructure – a special feature of the Helmholtz Association. The association designs and builds powerful modern research facilities in order to expand the frontiers of knowledge. At the same time, this work on new detectors, satellites and large-scale measurement networks produces many technological innovations that have applications in very different fields.

The Helmholtz Association has in part assumed the role of architect at both the national and international levels. In a broad-based strategy development process (“The Helmholtz Roadmap for Research Infrastructure”), it has identified the major research infrastructure that is necessary and strategically relevant to implement its scientific portfolio in the coming years. After these complex, large-scale devices are built, they are made available free of charge to a multidisciplinary international user community – particularly to universities. The Helmholtz Association is also playing an important role in international projects. For example, the European XFEL X-ray laser is currently being assembled at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY; a unique ion accelerator, the Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), will be constructed by international partners at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research; and ITER, an experimental reactor for nuclear fusion, is being built in Cadarache, France, with the help of several Helmholtz centres.

LOOKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

With its cutting-edge research, the Helmholtz Association is contributing to meeting the major and pressing challenges of today and to ensuring a sustainable quality of life and prosperity. For this purpose, we are pursuing strategic partnerships and collaborations in a goal-oriented manner in an effort to pool expertise and accelerate progress in key fields. The Helmholtz Association’s success rests on the dedicated staff members that we are able to attract, retain and support. At the Helmholtz Association, these employees find optimal working conditions and a unique research environment for their work. On behalf of society, we are providing a knowledge base with which to address the major issues of the future. This mandate is central to our mission. The Helmholtz Association sees its role as a reliable partner of policymakers and society as entailing an obligation to help shape the future. In the position paper “Helmholtz 2020 – Shaping the Future through Partnership”, the members of the Helmholtz Association present proposals on how the association can take on more responsibility in the research community in the future as part of the effort to further develop German science.