Germanys Leading-Edge Clusters

Deutschlands Spitzencluster

Cover Deutschlands Spitzencluster
© BMBF
Cover Deutschlands Spitzencluster

Germany is a strong and globally recognized business location. We need research and innovation to remain at the forefront of worldwide competition, for they are the key to growth and progress. To provide new impetus for this collaboration, the German Federal Government is developing the successful High-Tech Strategy further into a comprehensive innovation strategy for Germany. A key factor contributing to the success of the High-Tech Strategy is the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research has invested more than 360 million euros into this competition since 2008. In doing so, they play a major role in implementing the High-Tech Strategy. With the launch of the Leading-Edge Cluster Competition in 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) introduced Germany’s first nationwide, cluster funding programme, open to all technologies and to be made conditional on a long-term strategy. In a total of three competition rounds, an independent jury selected 15 Leading-Edge Clusters from more than 80 competition entries. These clusters receive funding of up to 40 million euros each over a period of five years.This brochure is a first status report.