"This year's Munich Security Conference focused for the first time on new strategic technologies, above all the development and application of artificial intelligence. This is undoubtedly important and highly topical. Equally important, however, is discussing the necessary changes in our research and innovation system that can lead us to sovereignty and economic growth based on technological strength. Without appropriate framework conditions and a strategically oriented innovation system, we risk security dependencies and further losses in growth.
The window of opportunity for this will soon close completely. Now is the last chance to successfully make innovation Germany's guiding principle in a more uncertain world through bold reforms.
But how much creativity and how much disruption do global geopolitical changes bring about with regard to research and innovation? We want to illustrate this using three key trends and their consequences.
Germany, once a nation of innovation, must break out of the "comfort zone" of the peace dividend." Moving out of this rut, overcoming dysfunctional attitudes, and implementing radically new reforms is crucial. This applies not only to traditional policy areas like pensions, the labor market, and healthcare, but also to research and innovation policy.
Germany and Europe are stuck in the "mid-tech trap." A good half of German industrial research still focuses on the automotive industry and other sectors that excel at gradually improving their products but are not at the forefront of technological progress and can therefore lead the economic system into dead ends.
Instead of boldly investing in new key technologies, the status quo is too often maintained.
Time to act
1. Implement structural changes in the research and innovation system and create incentives for private investment: China's ambitions should serve as a wake-up call. Beijing has been planning for the long term, setting clear priorities, and has thus succeeded in transforming itself from the global manufacturing hub into the world's leading research and innovation center. To secure technological sovereignty, we need structural changes and clear decisions in science and innovation. Innovation system. Two key levers for this are capital and speed. To achieve high-impact investments, government, private, and institutional investors must take on more risk and reward it. Greater speed also means, above all, less bureaucracy. And this applies not only to government, but also to companies and research institutions.
2. Building new international research collaborations in a fragmented world: The borderless exchange of knowledge and the global mobility of talent are suffering under current US policy. No side benefits from these restrictions. But Europe has the opportunity to at least minimize the damage. This means building new partnerships, for example with India, and revitalizing existing partnerships, for example with Japan, Australia, and Canada. Including these countries in the successor program of Horizon Europe, the European Union's research and innovation program, can be a helpful catalyst here.
3. Enabling innovation for and through security. Like other European countries, Germany is massively increasing its defense spending. But unlike in the US, investments in Germany have so far included only a small research component. The attempt at a strict separation between civilian and military spending is proving problematic. and military research is no longer up-to-date and also hinders spillover effects. Disruptive technologies like GPS often originate from military research programs.
If Germany wants to achieve its targets of 3.5 percent of the budget for research and 5 percent for defense, we must create more investments with a double return – for security and innovation. Therefore, particular attention must be paid to innovative procurement in the defense sector and the expansion of innovation ecosystems in security-relevant research.
Breaking down old structures
Breaking down outdated structures quickly, advancing internationalization, and bringing security and innovation together – these three areas of action demonstrate that a paradigm shift is needed along the entire innovation chain – from basic research through transfer and start-ups to the use and application of technologies: Germany and Europe must respond quickly and agilely to these new challenges.
To achieve this, it is essential to create spaces for creativity and disruption, allow for risk-taking, attract and retain talent, strategically integrate security-relevant research, and strengthen cooperation between the state, the private sector, and the scientific community. To achieve this, we must successfully manage a three-pronged task: raising awareness of the urgency—particularly among policymakers—of the situation; reviewing and, where necessary, adapting our tools (while swiftly and purposefully implementing the Federal Government’s high-tech agenda to boost Germany’s innovative strength and competitiveness); and, finally, identifying and scaling up success stories.
If we succeed, Germany can once again become a nation that shapes innovation—not merely an observer, but a driving force behind the next technological wave.
The author (B.R.) is President of the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina; the co-author is a board member of the Volkswagen Foundation.” [1]
It is good to see that these two members of Western European elite stopped saying, that let us use German industry, combining it with AI, to get competitiveness back. German industry was based on cheap steady Russian gas. Chinese are getting this cheap steady gas now and making cheap good quality stuff and outstanding cheap AI. German industry was a complicated ecosystem, that is dying now after “Zeitenwende”, turning away from Russia. What to study now? What to produce on basis of this study? Doing what the Chinese are doing well now is not an option. Our gut is too thin. Tanks will also not fly. Swarms of FPV drones and high precision missiles are flying faster than tanks can go. Swarms of FPV drones are detecting tanks early enough for artillery to finish the tanks. Just look at the Israel’s tanks suffering from cheap Hezbollah’s FPV glass fiber-controlled drones. It is a blood bath. You must find something new for your science. Raising goats? That was done in Europe for ages. Back to the roots, anyone?
1. Was die globalen Umbrüche für unsere Forschung bedeuten: Radikale Reformen sind nicht nur für Rente und Gesundheit nötig, sondern auch für Deutschlands Innovationssystem. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 01 Apr 2026: N1. BETTINA ROCKENBACH, GEORG SCHÜTTE
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