Mrs. Sylvia Vogt,
Mrs. Rebecca Lucore,
Mr. David Murdoch,
Ladies and Gentlemen,


You call it STEM we call it MINT – the underlying notion is the same and a declining STEM workforce is a challenge both, the U.S. and Germany are facing. I am therefore especially pleased to be here, to exchange ideas and to plant the seeds for a continuing dialogue. A dialogue not only among ourselves, but also among representatives of local and regional governments, universities and companies, American as well as German.

I am sure, we all agree that a high-quality STEM education is essential for maintaining a country’s leadership in innovation.
Innovation plays a key role in achieving and securing sustainable economic growth. It is the only way to ensure that income and prosperity reach the largest possible number of people and that a country retains its competitive edge on the international stage.

As one of the leading industrial nations, one of the countries which covers all fields of research and science, with branches of industries ranging from nano-technologies to space research, Germany’s position is promising. Being the largest exporter of high-tech goods, it comes ahead even of the U.S. or Japan. These successes testify Germany’s ability to turn research into applicable, practical results: Germany is a country of applied science.

But Germany is also a country with few and limited natural resources and raw materials. Germany does not own petroleum or gas. The source of our prosperity and technological progress is the high-level of training of our workforce: Our petroleum and gas has a different name, it is called innovation based on STEM.

At the same time, like the U.S. and a lot of Western countries Germany is experiencing a shortage of trained STEM talent. If no actions are taken, the shortage will grow. Additionally, Germany is also experiencing a decline in population.
These two factors, the necessity of strong economic growth on the one hand and the impact of demographic change on the other will increase the demand for highly skilled employees and hence will necessitate the mobilization of an additional two million highly skilled workers and specialists until 2020. Mobilization on this scale will require several steps: A substantial rise in the participation rates of elder people and women, reforms in the educational system and changes in the structure of the labor market to retain German labor as well as measures to attract foreign talent.

Having said that, we have to realize that we find ourselves in a fierce international competition. Most Western economies are facing exactly the same challenges, namely to build and strengthen STEM labor force in times of major demographic changes and increasing globalization. We have to be aware, that the best talents can and do chose to study, work and live where they find the best framework conditions.

It is therefore Germany’s aim to create an environment that produces the maximum number of STEM workers from its own labor base, while attracting the best and brightest international talents to its shores.

How does the German government achieve these goals?

Three fields of action are crucial: Education, science and research as well as the labor market. First, let us briefly look at some facts and figures and outline the most important measures under way in Germany.

Very much like the U.S., Germany is a federal state, in which federal states have sole responsibilty for education policy. So close coordination and cooperation among federal states and with the federal government is essential.

The education system in Germany has improved considerably in recent years. This is demonstrated not least by the results scored by German school students in the OECD’s 2006 PISA study. But to ensure Germany’s competitiveness in innovation further steps are needed to supply important impulses for providing for the future.
At the interfaces between early childhood education, school, training and university a high overall standard and equal opportunity needs to be secured. Therefore, the Federal Government and the states passed in October 2008 a joint Qualification Initiative. Key aspects include: Strenghtening the STEM subjects and encouraging children and adolescents to take an interest in mathematics, information technology, the natural sciences and technology, increasing the number of university entrants and ensuring that people are able to gain qualifications during their entire life.

Particular incentives will be introduced for university entrants in the STEM disciplines, the quality of mathematics and science teaching will be improved and the promotion of the STEM subjects in school and early childhood education will be enhanced considerably.

In order to interest the future generation in technical and scientific questions at an early age, the Federal Government together with other stakeholders will support the so-called “House of Little Scientists” initiative at up to 10,000 child daycare centers.
Children’s universities that have been sprouting up around the country provide a successful model.

All programs are conceived with the underlying rationale to continue to increase university matriculation figures. The results over the years have been positive: In 1980, only 21% of females in one age group passed the general higher education entrance exam, whereas the corresponding figure for 2007 is 49%; the corresponding figures for males are 24% and 41%.

If we take the latest matriculation figures, for example, for engineering, one can see positive trends indeed. In 2007 61,600 high school graduates enrolled for engineering sciences, this reflects a 9% increase to the previous year. In 1980 only 7.2% of graduates in engineering were women. In 1990 the female share rose to 11.5%, in 2000 it was 19.2% and in 2007 it was 22.3 %

Since universities serve as centers of scientific research and innovation, they play a key role in supplying fresh ideas to the German economy. By implementing the Bologna process – a EU program that attempts to adjust university degrees for recognition in the EU member states and beyond – they are also undergoing a comprehensive modernization of higher education. To support that process, Germany and the states have agreed on an Higher Education Pact designed to introduce bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Many degree courses at German universities are now being taught in the lingua franca of the STEM subjects, English, which enables German students to study abroad and makes it easier for foreign students to pursue their studies in Germany.

Germany now ranks 3rd among host countries for international students (more than 12% of its students are international). In fact, Germany has also eased restrictions on highly qualified students to study in Germany – and the European Blue Card set to come into effect in spring 2011 shall attract further high potentials to Europe.

German Universities are nevertheless reaching out to other universities, especially US-universities. With offices in New York and establishing an alumni-network which helps to set up cooperation between faculties in STEM-sectors, the flow of communication across the Atlantic is facilitated.

Particularly, the German Research Foundation, Germany’s central public funding agency for science and research offers grants for excellent researchers and scientists. In its function, it is therefore an important institution in promoting Germany as a key player in research and science.

In 2006, the High-Tech Strategy, a national strategy for innovation policy, was introduced. The German government has placed Research and Development firmly at the heart of its activities. The goal is to turn Germany into one of the most research friendly countries in the world and to increase the investments in Research and Development from 2,5% to 3% of the GDP (in line with EU Lisbon Strategy by 2010). An approx. 15 billion Euro  were made available for cutting-edge technologies to enhance innovations in 17 special fields: Including health, chemistry, biotechnology, security research and energy research (for instance, photovoltaic). A vitally needed U-turn has been made in Germany’s research policy and with it, a new climate for investment was created. 

Although Government-involved, the High-Tech Strategy is not being slowed down by bureaucratic process. An Industry-Research Alliance (Forschungsunion Wirtschaft- und Wissenschaft) supports and reviews the initiative closely. Forging cooperation between science and industry it is a crucial instrument to bring STEM-companies and research and science institutions, such as the Max Planck Gesellschaft, together.
For advancement in applied science would not be possible without the support of companies and German companies are indeed investing more: From 38,7 billion Euro in 2005, 41,8 billion Euro were pumped into Research and Development in 2007.

Another successful initiative is the Excellence Initiative: With a 1,9 billion Euro budget until 2011, the Federal Government introduced a nation-wide competition among the country’s universities. The Excellence Initiative aims to promote top-level research and to generally improve the quality of German universities and research institutions.
By making Germany a more attractive research location as well as internationally more competitive, the Excellence Inititiative focuses on the oustanding achievements of German universities and Germany’s scientific community.

Since its passing by the German federal and state governments in 2005, the Excellence Initiative can really be considered a breakthrough for Germany’s research sector: It has offered attractive conditions and improved career opportunities for highly skilled scientists and has created thousands of new job opportunities.

The fact that the German Research Foundation’s funding programs are open to scientists and researchers from all nationalities – provided that they want to carry out their research in Germany, of course – is again, a valuable incentive for foreign academics to come to Germany.

All in all, the success rates of grant applications submitted to the German Research Foundation are well above the comparative rates of their U.S. counterparts.

As mentioned before, one important role in strengthening Germany’s STEM workforce also lies in making better use of the talent of women. Today, the share of female professors has reached an all-time high. In 2006, 5,700 female professors were employed at German universities – an increase from 8% to 15% since 1995. Nonetheless, the share of female scientists in leading positions in universities is still lower than the share of female staff as a whole and thus needs further improvement.

If Germany could lift its overall workforce participation and employment rates by employing more women (not only in science) and older people, an additional 4.5 million full-time employees, among them much needed STEM-potentials would become available. It is necessary to create a system with further incentives. For example, individual taxation instead of the tax-splitting regulations and joint insurance schemes currently in place for married couples would make full-time employment for both partners more attractive. With regard to foreign high potentials, by easing restrictions for highly qualified workers, Germany will effectively open its borders for those with university or higher qualifications from the 10 new EU countries from the beginning of next year.

Summing up, I hope I could show that a lot has been done and will be done to strengthen Germany’s STEM workforce. Through financial commitments as well as concerted action, the German government and its key players introduced a number of important initiatives that continue to support Germany’s reputation as a favorable destination for high potentials.The international visibility of Germany as a land of ideas and excellent research, of an open forward-looking society and a competitive economy, has been enhanced.

First positive results have been reached in the STEM efforts: The number of people working in the Research & Development sector has increased by nearly 6000 over the past two years. Since the late nineties, Germany invested strongly in renewable energies and has become a world leader in solar and wind energies. This enabled Germany to accompany its STEM initiatives with examples of best practice: High-tech investment in renewable energy made Research & Development a field of more innovation.

Let me conclude with questions we all need to consider in our ensuing discussion : What role do global companies play? And: What importance do national internationalization strategies play for the STEM workforce of the future?

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for your attention.