Research Cooperation with France: For the Energy of Tomorrow

Many important European endeavours providing thousands of workers with secure jobs and a promising future – such as the Airbus and the satellite navigation system Galileo – started out as collaborations between German and French researchers. Considering the importance of German-French scientific cooperation, the Helmholtz Association plans to work together more closely in the future with the French organisation CEA (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique) in the field of energy research. Representatives of the two organisations signed an agreement to that effect in 2007 at the French embassy in Berlin.

Energy is a key issue in today’s world. Finding efficient and climate-neutral solutions to securing our energy supply is imperative if we are to look forward to a prosperous future – in Germany and all over the world. Professor Mlynek und Alain Bugat, Director General of the CEA, signed a framework agreement in 2007 to promote more rapid progress in these issues. As one of the major organisations active in the field of energy research in Germany, the Helmholtz Association is an attractive partner for the CEA, which also focuses on energy research in France.

It is hoped that by stepping up cooperation, researchers will be able to develop new energy technologies more rapidly. Besides renewable energy sources, fuel cells and hydrogen technologies, an important topic of research in this regard is energy storage. In addition, the two organisations plan to work together more closely on improving nuclear safety and to cooperate more closely in the fields of environmental and climate research.  The agreement provides a framework within which the research centres affiliated with the two organisations can develop specific projects. It is hoped that exchange programmes in which scientists work in one of the partner organisation’s research institutes, shared use of large-scale facilities and various other forms of mutual support will serve to accelerate the pace of research. The scheme will kick off in early 2008 with a series of workshops, in which French and German researchers will meet to decide on suitable projects. The first bilateral partnership agreements are scheduled to be signed at the Third French-German Research Forum in Paris on 29 February 2008.