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ePaper created 2014-12-22, 09:34:33 | version 1.34.00
10 New research fields with a strategic importance The Helmholtz Association is committed to conducting socially relevant research and addressing the major chal- lenges facing society, science and industry today. To meet these goals, at five-year intervals the association system atically reviews the portfolio of research topics that were core-financed within the framework of programme-oriented funding. The new programme structure derived from these reviews is also a result of the comprehensive thematic plan- ning process that began in all of the association’s research fields in 2010. Sixteen of these new research topics were allocated funding from the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation so that the work on these topics could begin before the start of the new 2014/15 programme period. Pooling expertise by building networks within the research system Science thrives on collaboration and the exchange of ideas. The Helmholtz Association has used funding from the Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation to establish a wide range of collaborative models, from temporary networks in which project partners pursue a common goal at different locations to permanent structures such as the Helmholtz institutes. The latter are branches of the Helmholtz centres set up on the campus of a university partner. The Joint Initiative has made it possible to provide targeted support for these new structures. Via joint projects, the partner universities benefit from the funds that the Helmholtz Association has received from the Joint Initiative. In many cases the Helmholtz Association’s Initiative and Networking Fund provides start-up assistance for network-building initiatives through its own funding instruments. In the Helmholtz alliances and virtual institutes, the Helmholtz centres pool their expertise with universities and non- university partners in order to achieve rapid progress and international visibility in strategically important research areas. In 2013 two new alliances commenced their work: the energy alliance “Technologies for the Future Energy Grid”, funded with 3.2 million euros for two years, and the alliance “Preclinical Comprehensive Cancer Center”, allo- cated a total of five million euros for a period of four years. In contrast to the Helmholtz alliances, the virtual institutes are smaller, flexible structures that will draw on internation- al expertise and address specific research topics together with university partners. From the Initiative and Networking Fund they receive funding of up to 600,000 euros a year for JOINT INITIATIVE FOR RESEARCH AND INNOVATION The Joint Initiative for Research and Innovation guarantees the Helmholtz Association and other non-university research organisations a budget through 2015 with increases of five per cent per year. With this programme, Germany’s federal and state governments have created optimal conditions for developing the participating research organisations. The report on the following pages describes how the Helmholtz Association is fulfilling the initiative’s objectives.