Approved funds for education and research
BSo far, 3.5 million students, technical students and vocational students have had to be content with the announcement of a one-off heating cost subsidy. After the cleanup session Budget Committee of the Bundestag, the beneficiaries (Bafög and AFBG recipients) can be sure that they will get the money: the 700 million euros in additional expenditure have now been approved. However, it will not be paid out until next year, because the relevant draft law is currently being coordinated by the departments. But the Budget Committee has released more funds.
For the prestige object of Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP), the newly established German Agency for Transfer and Innovation (DATI), 1.7 million euros in budget funds have been released to finance “start-up measures”, and 14.6 million are to be added in the coming year. However, the lion’s share of 35.4 million of the 50 million euros planned for 2023 remains blocked. The budget committee does not want to release them until the Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has presented a “conclusive concept”, which the ministry announced for the end of November.
The SPD rapporteur responsible for the BMBF budget, Wiebke Esdar, said that the budget committee would “continue to closely monitor” the development of the DATI. She also emphasized that the excellence initiative for vocational training will be funded with 22.8 million euros over the next three years in the adjustment meeting. In addition, an agreement was reached with the Federal Ministry of Economics for the continued financing of the GRACE I satellite mission for climate and environmental monitoring. The United States is funding the project with a significant proportion of the funds, without German co-financing it would have failed. By 2028, almost 60 million will flow from the BMBF budget for the GRACE I satellite mission, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection will contribute the same sum again. The Federal Minister of Education will receive two million euros for 2023 for the “National Strategy for Economic Education” that she is planning.
The budget committee approved a total of 44 million euros by 2028 for the establishment of a new translation center for cell and gene therapy in Berlin. However, the funds will only be released if the state of Berlin contributes five million of its own funds.
In view of the many reports of scientific misconduct in academic theses, research studies and applications, it is an important decision to make the Ombudsman Board for Research Integrity a permanent institution. This means that the German Research Foundation can fund it institutionally.
There was a sensational reversal in the financing of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Both had feared deep cuts and a painful reduction in funds after the publication of the federal government’s budget and are part of the budget of the Federal Foreign Office. After the announcement of the funding cuts, there were considerable protests, including from abroad. Now the adjustment meeting has even brought the DAAD an increase in funds: It will receive 31 million euros more than provided for in the previous budget and will therefore have a total of 222 million euros at its disposal. The budget holders approved an additional 6.5 million euros for the Humboldt Foundation. The feared cuts at the Goethe-Institut will not happen either. It should receive 15 million euros more.
