One billion euros for Berlin’s researchers

Berlin. Despite the corona pollution, Berlin received an additional billion euros for science and research this year alone, thereby expanding its top position in Germany. “The development is sensational,” said State Secretary for Science Steffen Krach of the Berliner Morgenpost. “It will go on and must go on, there is huge potential in it for the whole city.”

In November alone, Berlin received 500 million euros from the federal budget, 212 million euros from the German Research Foundation and 110 million euros each from research funding from the EU and for research in artificial intelligence.

The central project for the new year is the integration of the German Heart Center Berlin (DHZB) into the Charité, so Krach. The planning for a new building is already underway. A building for the DHZB for 387 million euros is to be built at the Virchow-Klinikum site. Berlin pays 286 million euros, 100 million euros from the federal government. “It’s a one-time thing that the federal government is investing in a clinic,” said Krach.

Also read: Krach: “We want to attract bright minds for Berlin”

Especially against the background of the corona pandemic, Krach sees the additional investments in the science location as a particular success: “The competition for research funding from the EU or from the federal government is tough, but our scientists prevail with their ideas.” 15 years ago the capital was still laughed at in some areas, “now Berlin is the undisputed number one in Germany”.

Berlin can attract renowned scientists

Now it is important to strive for a top position internationally. The State Secretary also sees Berlin on the right track here. “We are so attractive to top scientists that we can bring them here and keep them.” As an example, he cited the biochemist Emmanuelle Charpentier, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2020 for her development of so-called gene scissors. The world-renowned chief virologist at the Charité, Christian Drosten, was also won over three years ago to move from Bonn to Berlin. “We want to do the same with other top people,” said Krach. “If we succeed in doing that in the long term, Berlin will move up into the international top five.” There are currently some locations in the USA and Oxford University in Great Britain ahead of Berlin.

If that succeeds, Steffen Krach will only be able to see the success from a distance. The 41-year-old SPD politician is going to be elected regional president of Hanover next summer.

Universities are no longer in competition with one another

As one of his most sustainable initiatives in Berlin, the idea of ​​the “Brain City” will outlast his term of office. “Brain City stands for the fact that we are a common science location”, Krach explained the idea behind it. “A common spirit grows, we all pull together.” When it started in Berlin, the city did not see itself as a location that was in competition with others, but rather there was competition between the Free University, the Humboldt University and the Technical University or the universities of applied sciences. “But the basic idea is that you can achieve more together than each individual.”

The joint success of the Berlin University Association in the federal government’s strategy of excellence is regarded as the provisional high point of this development. For the first time, an alliance between the Berlin universities and the Charité will be funded with up to ten million euros annually for seven years. “The phenomenal performance of the Berlin network was the result of this development, but certainly not its end,” said Krach. “When companies like Siemens or Oxford University say that Berlin is attractive to them, it has a lot to do with this dynamic.”

– .