1.

Background

For the first time ever, the German government has developed a comprehensive national strategy for all its ministries with the aim of putting our country at the top of the world’s ranks in tomorrow’s most important markets. thorugh developping excellence and

• fostering talent in all spheres – from the natural sciences to the humanities, from small start-ups to sizable SMEs.
• turning Germany into the most research-friendly nation in the world by the year 2020.

2.

The policy goals

The 7 priorities of the High.tech strategy for Germany in a nutshell:

• Translate ideas into practice: The High-Tech Strategy places innovation policy at the heart of government action. It is the first national strategy to show how Germany can become and remain a global leader in the most important cutting-edge technologies.
• Create more freedom for new ideas: This central policy thread has been woven into all parts of the High-Tech Strategy. More freedom for research and industry means that research findings will become products faster.
• Foster and support good minds: Germany wants to become the most research-friendly country in the world. To achieve this goal, we will foster and support talent and capability as early in life as possible and work to ensure that performance and accomplishments receive greater recognition.
• No ideological blinkers: We will be open and receptive to new technologies. In areas such as green biotechnology and security technology we will seek opportunities and market potential.
• Goals for the markets of the future: To create lead markets, the High-Tech Strategy has laid down clear-cut goals and developed a timetable complete with concrete activities for each of its targeted 17 cutting-edge fields. New strategic partnerships will arise as a result of the close coordination between the players involved.
• New ideas for SMEs: Support for small and mediumsized businesses and collaboration between science and industry take center stage in the High-Tech Strategy. All funding instruments and political
• Push the strategy forward: The "Forschungsunion Wirtschaft-Wissenschaft" will provide flanking support during the implementation of the High-Tech Strategy. The experts in the Research Alliance will issue regular reports to document the strategy's progress.

The High-tech strategy is complemented by the German Federal Government's Broadband Strategy which sets out national objectives for broadband deployment in Germany, as well as the key strategies for meeting these objectives.

• The key objective is to have nationwide capable broadband access by 2010. The Report also states that a total of 75 percent of German households should have high speed broadband access with transmission rates of at least 50MB/sec by 2014.
• The strategies for achieving these objectives include capitalising on synergies in the construction of infrastructure (e.g., sharing);
• Using the digital dividend;
• Formulating regulation that fosters investment and growth; and
• Financial support

3.

The policy document

 
High-Tech Strategy Germany

Germany national bb strategy

4.

The gender dimension

The policy is backed up by the national initiative, the so-called WEB-Charta: