Country is expecting €25.6bn in total, with “numerous” plans for investing in R&D
Germany has received the first payment of its €25.6bn share of the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, billions of which has been allocated to research and innovation.
The €2.25 billion sum, paid on 26 August, was the amount requested by the German government to kick-start investments and reforms agreed with the European Commission and other EU member state governments in a national spending plan.
A Commission analysis found that “numerous” measures in the plan were expected to contribute to R&D. The reforms and investments would provide a welcome boost to the sector: although R&D spending in Germany is high and growing—having risen from 2.5 per cent of GDP in 2007 to 3.2 per cent in 2019—there remain areas for improvement, according to the analysis.
For example, private investment is concentrated in large firms and R&D expenditure in smaller companies has “stagnated” over the past decade, the Commission said.
Germany’s plan allocates R&D investments to areas including microelectronics and computing, as well as to big-ticket items. These include €1.5bn for a cross-border hydrogen project and €750 million for Covid-19 vaccine research, which will go to three companies. Climate protection research will receive €50.4m in project funding.
“Germany’s recovery and resilience plan will support efforts to develop an efficient hydrogen economy, investments in sustainable transport and energy-efficient building renovations, as well as the digitalisation of public services, healthcare and education,” said EU economy commissioner Paolo Gentiloni.
Germany is somewhat of an outlier among EU countries in asking for an initial payment of just 9 per cent of its total share of the fund rather than the full 13 per cent available under Commission rules. The rest will come if agreed milestones are hit.