German policymakers place a great deal—perhaps too much—emphasis on defending Germany's strengths, while neglecting to promote innovation and venture capital. This is the conclusion of the current innovation report by the Expert Commission for Research and Innovation (EFI). Established by the German federal government in 2006, the expert council reports annually on the state of the German research and innovation landscape.
The presentation of the EFI report in the premises of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce for Munich and Upper Bavaria was led by CEO Peter Driessen intervenes. He complains about a lack of access to venture capital in Germany and addresses politicians:
“We urgently need different conditions for venture capital.”
Driessen also advocates for tax incentives for research and development (R&D) by companies and calls for a strengthening of electronic administration in Germany. Promising e-government pilot projects have already been implemented at the municipal level.
At the same time, Driessen emphasized Munich's existing innovative strength: Established companies have developed a magnetic attraction for innovative start-ups; the existing network of public and private research institutions is excellent.
Data as raw materials
In his presentation, Professor Dietmar Harhoff, chairman of the expert commission, endorsed the call for strengthening e-government and tax incentives for R&D spending. However, the direction of innovation is crucial: in Germany, digitalization is often thought of with a strong industrial focus.
Referring to Uber and Airbnb, Harhoff called for innovations in the IoT sector to be addressed and for data-driven business models to be promoted. To encourage the startup idea to gain greater traction among SMEs, Harhoff proposes "business model academies" where SMEs can derive new business models from the data their companies generate. Recently, Harhoff also called for Chancellor Angela Merkel, to understand data as raw materialsNow it is up to politicians and small and medium-sized businesses to launch innovative business models.
The complete study, figures, graphics and the dataset are available for download.
