In addition to a wide range of technology-focused offerings, Berlin also boasts an extraordinary breadth of research in the humanities and social sciences. This contributes to overcoming social and economic problems, also in an international context, and provides valuable stimulus to the German capital region through new ideas.
Berlin’s research and innovation policy specifically addresses innovation topics in which technological potential is attuned to societal needs. This applies in particular to health research, climate and climate impact research and all topics related to digitalisation.
The state’s innovation policy is flanked by a range of funding instruments that support the innovative capacity and activity of Berlin companies in a variety of ways.
Of outstanding importance is the funding programme for research, innovations and technologies (Pro FIT). It aims to advance the intensity of research and development in Berlin’s economy by funding ambitious, innovative projects. The support relates primarily to the clusters defined in the Joint Innovation Strategy of the Länder of Berlin and Brandenburg (innoBB 2025) adopted in 2019. It centres around five clusters: ICT, media and creative industries; the health industry; energy technology; optics and photonics; and transport, mobility and logistics. All of the clusters are actively working on the priority topics of digitalisation, Work 4.0 and skilled workers, real labs and test fields, and start-ups and business launches. In addition, their actions are guided by the guidelines of a broader concept of innovation as well as the goals of ‘closer cross-cluster cooperation’, ‘strengthening open innovation processes’, and ‘prioritising sustainable innovations’ and ‘expanding international cooperation’.
Continuing under the motto of ‘Excellence in Innovation’, the aim is to develop the capital region into a leading innovation area in Europe and design innovative solutions for the challenges of tomorrow.
New incentives are being set for cutting-edge research: Berlin has taken a leading position nationwide with its successful consortium of excellence, the Berlin University Alliance, consisting of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, as well as seven clusters of excellence. Key fields of the future are receiving a big boost through new institutes: the Einstein Center Digital Future, the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society, the AI flagship project BIFOLD and the Werner-von-Siemens Centre for Industry and Science make Berlin a hub for research on digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
By 2025, two new Fraunhofer facilities will be established in Berlin: the supraregional Fraunhofer Institute for Translational Medicine and Pharmacology, with an allergology focus at the Berlin site, and the Fraunhofer centre for public safety, SIRIOS (Fraunhofer Center for Security of Socio-Technical Systems).