Helmholtz research deals with pressing problems and complex challenges and seeks to develop effective solutions. A prime example of such a challenge is the pending transformation of the energy economy, for which Helmholtz energy research will provide an important underpinning. We are also facing major challenges in the field of health research. In ageing societies such as ours, the percentage of the population in need of medical assistance will continue to grow and, as a result, we need to conduct goal-oriented research in order to develop effective preventative measures, new diagnostic procedures and options for treatment. To this end, the Helmholtz centres have been involved in setting up “German Centres of Health Research”, whose goal is to pool and increase the expertise of German researchers with regard to major common diseases.

Our research agenda is focusing on these and other issues that will become increasingly vital as we move into the future. We are also working to ensure the strategic relevance and scientific excellence of Helmholtz research through the competitive process of programme- oriented funding. Our entire core budget of more than two billion euros will be awarded on the basis of this process, with the relevant research programmes coming under review at fiveyear intervals. Together with our funding bodies, we have examined and enhanced this process over the last year (“Programme-Oriented Funding III”). We have retained the basic features of a method that has proved highly successful as a whole, but adapted individual stages to the new conditions emerging in the world of scientific research.

In order to enhance the actual impact of Helmholtz research, we have developed visions for the future in all six fields of research as part of a comprehensive portfolio development process that has involved experts from all the Helmholtz centres. We have also identified a range of research topics that are closely aligned with our mission and will now be given higher levels of funding.

At the same time, the infrastructure required for future research fields must be planned and built in a timely fashion so that we can conduct research in Germany that is up to international standards. Helmholtz researchers have made strategic preparations for this planning process, drawing up a roadmap that identifies the most important research infrastructure. The results are currently being discussed with funding bodies in the federal government and the federal states.

Furthermore, after a thorough review, we have expanded and optimised the Initiative and Networking Fund together with other internal instruments. In the process, the Helmholtz Association has made an important contribution to modernising the German research landscape.

The Helmholtz Association is growing*

Thanks to the higher level of funding and the association’s new members, we are now in a better position than ever to provide excellent conditions for research and to fulfil our mission. Total funding for fiscal year 2011 – amounting to 2,203 million euros – grew by 8 percent over fiscal year 2010. There are two reasons for this growth: the 5 percent increase in funding from the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation (Pakt für Forschung und Innovation), and the increase in financing levels for special investments (Sondertatbestände). An additional factor was the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), which was transferred to the Helmholtz Association from the Leibniz Association in early 2011. The HZDR has a staff of around 800 and a total budget of more than 118 million euros.

In the coming year, IFM-Geomar will also be transferred from the Leibniz Association to the Helmholtz Association – and renamed the “Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)”. In terms of research focuses, the Helmholtz- Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and the future Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR) provide an excellent fit with the mission of the Helmholtz Association. They will enable the association to grow quantitatively and expand its strong profile. However, the Helmholtz Association is not only expanding but also becoming more visible: with the addition of the HZDR and the renaming of the former GKSS as “Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, Centre for Material and Coastal Research (HZG)”, eight of the seventeen research centres now bear the Helmholtz name. The general public has also become more aware of the accomplishments of Helmholtz research. For example, immediately after the devastating natural disaster and nuclear catastrophe in Japan, the Helmholtz Association formed working groups to study the medium and long-term consequences of the disaster and apply the findings to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants in Germany. An additional working group is focusing on strategies for phasing out nuclear power and transforming the energy economy as a whole.

The German Centres of Health Research

The Helmholtz Association has been closely involved in establishing German Centres of Health Research, which are pooling the expertise of universities, university hospitals and research centres in the study of six major common diseases. The German Centre for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) was founded as a member of the Helmholtz Association in 2009. In 2010, the German Centre for Diabetes Research was established with the support and participation of the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health. Four additional German Centres of Health Research will be set up to fight cancer, heart and circulatory disease, pulmonary disease and infectious illnesses.

Through its member institutions – the German Cancer Research Center, the Helmholtz Zentrum München – German Research Center for Environmental Health, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, and the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin Buch – the Helmholtz Association is providing these new health research centres with unparalleled expertise.

New Helmholtz institutes, alliances and virtual institutes

In mid-2011 the three institutes that were established in Jena, Mainz and Saarbrücken in 2009 were joined by two additional Helmholtz institutes. The Helmholtz Institute Ulm for Electrochemical Energy Storage was set up as a branch of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology on the campus of Ulm University and began researching new battery systems. The Helmholtz Institute for Resource Technology was opened in Freiberg as a branch of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. This latter institute aims not only to develop technologies for the efficient study, production and utilisation of mineral and metalliferous resources, but also to research the field of recycling and the use of resources in the home. The seven Helmholtz alliances that were established in 2007/08 with the financial support of the Initiative and Networking Fund have gained international visibility as independent consortia in their respective research fields.

Committees of international experts have confirmed their progress in a number of intermediary evaluations. While the seven existing projects continue to run, additional alliances will be promoted. Three projects have already been selected: the DLR@Uni initiative, the Astroparticle Physics Alliance, and the Future Energy Supply Infrastructure Alliance. Up to now, funding has been provided to a total of 87 Helmholtz virtual institutes, involving 217 university partners from 55 different German universities. Twelve additional virtual institutes will be supported in the future, and the network will include companies and non-university research institutes in Germany and abroad, in addition to universities as the most important partners.

Profile building and strategic planning: the portfolio development process and roadmap

In order to fulfil its mission, the Helmholtz Association must systematically evolve, constantly adapt to new demands, and anticipate new challenges. In a broadly based port - folio development process that has drawn on the advice of numerous experts, the association has been able to identify major challenges and prospects for the future. Part of the additional funding made available to the Helmholtz Association from the Joint Initiative for Innovation and Research is intended for its portfolio development process.

 In an initial round of funding that began in 2011, seven portfolio topics and the energy storage initiative were awarded financial support until the next period of programme-oriented funding. University research partners will also benefit. Starting in the next funding period, research on these portfolio topics will continue as part of the individual research programmes. Nine additional portfolio topics will be approved in a second round of selections in fall 2011, with funding slated to begin in 2012. 

Through this work, the Helmholtz Association will fulfil the obligations it has assumed in the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation, under which it is required to dynamically develop scientific enquiry by means of new research topics and intensive cooperation with partner institutions.

In addition, the association has successfully completed the roadmap process to identify the infrastructure Germany requires for future research. Closely linked to the portfolio development process, the roadmap will serve as a foundation for strategic planning in the future and influence national and international debate.

Improving frameworks for scientific research

Greater financial resources create room for manoeuvre, but research policy initiatives are essential, too. One example is the Freedom of Science Initiative, which the Helmholtz Association has backed together with the other scientific organisations in Germany. Last year we saw the first positive results of these efforts in the form of major construction projects and the establishment of new centres and institutes such as the DZNE. Improvements were also seen in the acquisition of top international personnel. This is why the association must continue down this path – and combine lump-sum budgeting with more flexible staff acquisition instruments as a means of strengthening the international competitiveness of German research as a whole.

Strengthening international ties

In order to continue improving conditions for research, the Helmholtz Association has taken an active role in shaping both the European research landscape and the 8th European Research Framework Programme. As part of the 7th European Research Framework Programme, it successfully participated in a total of 199 projects, 35 of which were coordinated by Helmholtz centres. The influx of EU research and development funds was slightly lower than in the previous year, but the number of approvals from the European Research Council, totaling 20, more than doubled.

In addition, an international agreement was signed in October 2010 for the FAIR accelerator facility, to be built at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. A total of nine countries, including India and, most notably, Russia, will be involved. FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) is one of the largest research projects and most complex particle accelerator facilities in the world. The international agreement has clarified all implementation details. Germany will assume 75 percent of the total costs of 1.153 billion euros (as estimated in 2009).

The Helmholtz Association has also concluded an exemplary cooperation agreement with the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, covering the fields of Earth, environmental and energy research. Central themes of this research collaboration include the capture and storage of CO2 (“CCS”), the use of deep geothermal energy, water and soil remediation, the sustainable development of postmining areas, as well as the energy-efficient upgrading of bitumen. There are also plans to extend this collaboration to include health research.

The Helmholtz Association has been promoting young scientists in Russia and China for years. Cooperation with the Russian Foundation for Basic Research will be continued beyond the stipulated time period so that support can be provided to additional groups of young Germans and Russians. And now the representatives of the Helmholtz Association’s DESY research centre and the Kurchatov Institute have signed a letter of intent to establish a joint facility – the Ioffe-Röntgen Institute – which they intend to make one of the world’s leading centres for the development and utilisation of large-scale infrastructure for materials research. With this project, Helmholtz has sent a clear signal during the German-Russian Year of Science 2011.

Offering career opportunities to staff

In order to achieve its complex aims in the present and future, the Helmholtz Association is developing effective promotion instruments for all levels of staff qualification. After all, it is people who drive research with their ideas and commitment. The Helmholtz research and graduate schools – which are integrated into the Helmholtz centres – promote and support young people during their PhD work. In addition, outstanding young scientists can work independently as Helmholtz junior group leaders and optimally prepare for a career in research and teaching. The attractiveness of such opportunities is shown by, among other things, the large number and high quality of applications considered during the 2010 selection process.

The Helmholtz Management Academy prepares selected research, infrastructural and administrative staff to take on leadership roles. Furthermore, through its international recruitment initiative, the association is aiming to attract the best personnel possible and offer them an optimal environment for developing their talents. Equal opportunity plays a central role at all stages of the careers we offer– starting with family-friendly working hours and the childcare in the Helmholtz centres and extending to appointment policy in research and research management fields.

Outstanding research provides the knowledge base we need to meet present and future challenges. The first priority of research is to serve people. Issues related to human health are a concrete example, but challenges such as ensuring adequate energy supplies, overcoming resource shortage, and combating climate change also require innovative solutions. In proactively identifying the most pressing challenges of the day and basing our future course on them, we are making an important contribution to safeguarding the future.