The Helmholtz Association’s portfolio process
The Helmholtz Association’s mission is to respond to the grand challenges faced by society, science and industry. To successfully fulfil this mission in the long term, it continually and strategically plans ahead, steadfastly directing its research activities towards the issues that will play a decisive role in determining our future.
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- ATLAS, one of the particle detectors of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Image: CERN/ Maximilien Brice
An established element in this process is the Helmholtz Association programme drafts that are produced anew every five years. These take the form of suggestions on what the association’s research activities should be over the coming years. These drafts are reviewed by independent committees of international experts and their financing is authorised by the Helmholtz Senate. This continual strategic development was bolstered further with the introduction of the portfolio process in 2010.
Within this portfolio process and on the basis of the programme evaluations, the Helmholtz Association enlists the help of leading external experts to examine the current situation in each of its six research fields. Dependent on this, it then identifies which research themes need to be tackled over the coming years. This process takes into account feedback from the scientific community and discussions with representatives from the relevant funding bodies.
The Helmholtz Association is particularly committed to meeting the objectives set out in the German government’s Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation. This is clearly evident in the strategic research planning that has taken place in the portfolio process to date. One of the Helmholtz Association’s fundamental goals is to significantly promote the continuing development of the scientific system by introducing new collaborative structures involving university and non-university partners and by pooling existing competencies. The association’s research activities are thus set up to provide an effective framework for bundling existing expertise in a variety of scientific fields and to create new ways of cooperating with external partners. Crucial to these efforts are long-standing networks and partnerships with universities, such as the Helmholtz Institutes, the Helmholtz Alliances, the Deutsche Zentren für Gesundheitsforschung (German centres for health research) and the National Cohorts, as well as many other strategic initiatives on issues such as energy storage, and water and climate research. The Association is also developing international collaborations (e.g. the planned cooperation with the Kurchatov Institute in Russia and the Helmholtz-Alberta Initiative) and a wide range of partnerships with industry.
More information on portfolio process themes
22 05.12, Helmholtz Head Office
Platform for Detector Technology and Systems
The Helmholtz Association is setting up a platform to drive the development of detector technologies and detector systems. The platform will pool the expertise of researchers from seven Helmholtz Centres and two Helmholtz Institutes and from the eleven universities and seven research institutions in Germany and other countries that have joined the project so far. The platform will be funded as a portfolio theme from 2012 to 2016 and receive a total of €13 million. It aims to develop technologies for building highly-integrated detectors of photons, neutrons and charged particles, to optimise data transmission and analysis, and to design and build detector prototypes.
13 02.12, Helmholtz Head Office
Electromobility – an important topic for the future
The German government wants one million electric cars to be on Germany’s roads by 2020. But for that to happen, more research into electromobility will have to be done. The Helmholtz Association has been successfully pursuing electromobility research for many years, and it is now expanding that research with two new portfolio themes: Electromobility Research for Transportation Systems, and In-system Electrochemical Storage – Reliability and Integration.
22 11.11, Helmholtz Head Office
Water Science Network for the future
The theme of water is central to many research projects relating to climate change, the growing global population, energy supply and health matters. The main focus lies on improving water quality and access to water, and ensuring sustainable water resources management, both on a regional level and worldwide. In the new portfolio theme Helmholtz Water Science Network, five Helmholtz Centres are working together with numerous university partners to contribute to solving these major challenges. The Helmholtz Association will provide over €21 million in funding for the project until 2015.
01 11.11, Helmholtz Head Office
Helmholtz expands research on bioeconomy
With its new Sustainable Bioeconomy portfolio theme, the Helmholtz Association is expanding its research network in the field and closing research gaps. The move will bring together five Helmholtz Centres, seven universities, one Fraunhofer Institute and the German Biomass Research Centre to study how to make the biomass business economically, ecologically and socially sustainable. The project will receive a total of €13.5 million in funding from the Helmholtz Association until 2015 with matching contributions from partner institutions. After this period, work in the area will continue within the framework of Helmholtz research programmes.
27 10.11, Helmholtz Head Office
Membrane technologies for climate protection
A major share of our energy needs will continue to be supplied by fossil fuels in the coming decades. It is therefore essential to develop technologies to separate greenhouse gases that are produced when fossil fuels are burned. The Helmholtz Association is intensifying research in this area with its new portfolio theme Gas Separation Processes for Carbon-Free Fossil Fuel Power Plants. Four Helmholtz Centres and four universities are collaborating to propel development of new membrane technologies for carbon capture. The project will receive €3.5 million in funding from the Helmholtz Association each year until 2014 with matching contributions from partner institutions. After this period, work in this area can continue within the framework of Helmholtz research programmes.
26 07.11, Helmholtz Head Office
Helmholtz Association provides long-term infrastructure for API research
Working across its various research centres, the Helmholtz Association develops important research themes that will help take society and government forward into the future. One of these themes is API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) research, which is guaranteed long-term funding by the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation.
Helmholtz Association provides long-term infrastructure for API research
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