From high-tech strategy to high-tech agenda Germany: An overview of 20 years of the German STI flagship policy

This discussion paper examines how Germany designs and implements its major federal science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies. Being a flagship policy since 2006, the High-Tech Strategy and its following successors have not only provided a framework for German STI policy but also evolved considerably over time. Shifting towards a mission-oriented approach in 2018 with the High-Tech Strategy 2025, the most recent High-Tech Agenda Germany in turn highlights six key technologies. This paper provides an overview of the federal High-Tech Strategy (and its successors). It analyzes strategy context, priority selection, implementation (including budgeting and instruments), and policy learning. The High-Tech Strategy and its successors have served as the federal government's umbrella STI strategy, coordinating activities across ministries since 2006. Strategy development is coordinated by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt; BMFTR) and has relied on different approaches to prioritize activities including key technologies, missions and demand areas/future tasks. Despite these changing orientations and political priority setting, there is considerable continuity in overarching priorities, reflecting rather a gradual development than radical changes. Serving as an umbrella strategy, it lacks an independent budget and depends on the willingness of ministries to contribute to the strategy, being partly locked in a "STI trap". It focuses mostly on thematically oriented research funding, providing inputs to selected priorities, while acknowledging the importance of framework conditions (that are partly beyond the scope of the federal level, as universities are financed mainly by the regional level). Stakeholder involvement has increased over time but does not include the formulation process. While monitoring has been recently established, echoing repeated calls from advisory bodies, so far, no evaluation has taken place at the strategy level. The recently adopted High-Tech Agenda Germany reflects a paradigm shift, returning to key technologies and promising several innovations, including a stronger involvement of the regional level that so far has been widely absent from this strategy.