Europe has excellent science. But excellence alone does not determine whether knowledge leads to technological and societal progress, or to economic value creation. What matters is whether we create structures that enable cooperation, speed, entrepreneurial action and responsibility. Too often, transfer remains dependent on individuals, chance and project-funding logic. Anyone who takes innovation seriously must understand transfer as a core task of the science system – not as an add-on.
The higher education laws of the German federal states state this clearly: transfer is one of the core tasks of universities. And the same applies to non-university research institutions: transfer must be anchored permanently, institutionally and within supportive framework conditions. This includes an innovation-friendly approach to intellectual property. It also means better linking funding initiatives and reducing bureaucracy where it prevents cooperation, delays spin-offs or slows down investment. We need scientific quality. But at the same time, we need more structures that turn quality into impact.
Looking beyond our own borders helps: for example to Eindhoven, where the university, industry and the region have created a productive innovation ecosystem; to Sweden, where cooperation between the public and private sectors strengthens innovative capacity; or to the United States, where capital, entrepreneurship and cutting-edge research are more closely intertwined.
At the same time, we must no longer describe innovation funding as a task for “others” alone. Better framework conditions are needed at many levels: access to capital for successful scale-ups, expansion of digital infrastructure, support for key technologies, faster procedures and more innovation-friendly regulation. With its High-Tech Agenda, the German federal government has created an important foundation for making progress in this area. But a Germany with greater innovative strength will not emerge from strategy papers alone. It will emerge through people and institutions that take responsibility and actually implement plans: in universities, companies, foundations, administrations, regions and European networks.
Innovation needs founders. But it also needs people who build ecosystems, enable cooperation, modernize administration or scale up promising approaches. Bringing science and business to the same table is also entrepreneurial action – even without founding a company oneself. The key, therefore, is not only to wait for perfect framework conditions, but to make use of existing opportunities.
Not least for this reason, I am looking forward to my new presidency of the Stifterverband. For more than 100 years, the Stifterverband has been a joint initiative of business, science and civil society. Today, one of its central tasks lies at the interface between scientific excellence and economic as well as societal value creation. It is non-profit, oriented toward the common good, independent of sectoral interests and close to the actors who make change possible.
For implementation to succeed, we need a different understanding of strategy. Roadmaps can help close the gap between strategy and implementation. The instrument of Germany’s High-Tech Agenda is an important step. At the same time, roadmaps must consistently focus on outcomes: on technological milestones, investments, demonstrators, market success and clear responsibilities. We need ownership: actors who orchestrate progress and can be measured against concrete stages.
The summit is therefore more than a place for analysis. It can make shared responsibility visible. Daring more and moving faster does not mean abandoning care and diligence. It means turning knowledge into decisive action. If we succeed in doing so, Germany can once again become a country where not only knowledge is created, but the future is shaped.