JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014 - 19

Germany

75% of German companies consider
materials research to be essential
This review of the German industrial effort follows on from the article:
«Germany: more than a resilient country» published in JEC Composites
Magazine No.84 October 2013 (pp. 18 and 19). German businesses bank on
materials and institutions provide their support.

T

he German engineers
association, VDI, recently
presented a study of the
developments that lie ahead in
the field of materials for boosting
German competitiveness,
principally in the sectors of
energy and mobility. According
to this study, three-quarters of
German companies consider
that research into materials is
essential for their future development. This study also relates that
some two-thirds of innovations
are focused on the properties of
materials. All sectors have a stake
in these initiatives. Yet the challenge is also heavily dependent
on manufacturing techniques,
on multi-materials construction
and on end-of-life management.
The federal government and
the individual German states
support this drive.

R&D expenditure and
industrial investments on
the rise
Total R&D expenditure in
2012 in Germany amounted to
€79.5 billion (source: Bundesministerium für Bildung und
Forschung). This record amount

enabled the nation for the first
time to obtain its set objective
of 3% of the GNP dedicated to
R&D, in line with the European Union strategy: «Europe
2020». The lion's share of this
amount (67.8%) corresponds to

the R&D expenditure of private
companies. 18% are attributable
to academic research and 14.3%
to non-academic research organizations.
It should also be noted that over

875 M€
396 M€

1,044 M€
802 M€
5,493 M€

838 M€
1,533 M€

JEC Awards as an indicator

827 M€

During the last two sessions of
JEC Europe, German companies made a particularly shining
impression with composites
innovation. 20% of the JEC
Awards were won by German
companies in 2014 (3 out of 15)
and 27% in 2013 (3 out of 11),
to which should be added the
German innovation partners
internationally. The number and
the quality of applications from
Germany speak for themselves. n

9,574 M€
1,642 M€

3,975 M€

3,227 M€
2,753 M€
1,105 M€
11,332 M€

10,940 M€

Fig. 1: Investments in the manufacturing sector per German State in 2012 (million
€ - map: ©FG based on regionalstatistik.de data of April 24, 2014)

No90 June - July 2014 /

30% of university graduates
in Germany have a degree in
applied science or engineering
(Source Eurostat 2011).
However, the investment
situation varies markedly from
one federal state to another
(see Figure 1). The states of
Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg
and North Rhine Westphalia
are where most of the investment is concentrated. Southern
Germany is the richest area of
the country. It continues to bank
on technology to retain this
leadership. BMW is one of the
prime examples of this.

More information:
www.vdi.de
www.bmbf.de

jec composites magazine 19
http://www.vdi.de http://www.bmbf.de http://www.regionalstatistik.de
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #90 - June/July 2014

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