In Germany, you can freely choose your discipline and research topic. The country offers an open and supportive research environment that encourages curiosity, creativity and collaboration across all fields. This page highlights the strategic research areas shaping Germany's long-term priorities, alongside emerging and interdisciplinary topics facing challenges of the future. Whether you are drawn by a specific discipline or still exploring where to take your career next, these are the fields in which Germany is building its future – and looking for people to help build it.
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Research topics in focus
Germany gives researchers the freedom to choose their field – and backs that freedom with serious investment.
High-Tech Agenda Germany: key technologies shaping tomorrow
Areas such as space, artificial intelligence, climate and energy are currently among the most dynamic and promising research domains. They are strongly supported by the German federal government through its High-Tech Agenda, which promotes innovation and sustainable progress.
Through Germany's High-Tech Agenda, the Federal Government is investing in the technologies expected to shape the coming decades. It brings together two complementary perspectives: key technologies with high innovation potential and strategic research fields where research and innovation strengthen prosperity, resilience and security.
Below you are offered details on key research areas, funding opportunities for international researchers and leading institutions and research networks shaping the future of science and technologies in Germany.
Germany's national research priorities
Beyond the agenda – science that matters
Germany's research culture has always been about more than a single policy agenda. In addition to the High-Tech Agenda, these further research topics cover fields where German universities and institutes make significant contributions worldwide – sometimes driven by specific international partnerships, sometimes emerging from bottom-up scientific momentum. The features provide first-hand insights from researchers currently working on these topics in Germany, concrete project examples and pointers to funding programmes relevant to international researchers. If your field is here, there is already a community waiting for you.
Further research topics
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Many researchers and other players in Germany are contributing to improved health around the world with their international and interdisciplinary work.
We are faced with environmental challenges. This requires us to transform today’s oil based economy towards the sustainable use of renewable resources.
EnergInno Brazil was a campaign that aimed at strengthening the scientific research and industrial cooperation between the Brazilian and German sector of sustainable energy, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. In the field of green energy, EnergInno Brazil focused on the Brazilian and German markets of Green Hydrogen and Biogas. The campaign was led by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as a constituent component of Research in Germany.
InnoHealth USA was designed to strengthen the scientific research and the cooperation between the US and German health sector, including small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups. The campaign InnoHealth USA was led by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft as another constituent component of the Research in Germany initiative, lasting from 2020-2021.
Where to go next
Find the right resources for your research journey.
Germany’s Excellence Strategy strengthens world-class research by bringing together leading experts across disciplines to tackle the most pressing scientific challenges. In the excellence clusters, researchers collaborate across fields to develop groundbreaking solutions; advancing cutting-edge science while shaping strategic priorities for the future. These interdisciplinary hubs also offer funding opportunities and open positions for postdocs and early career researchers who want to contribute to high-impact research environments.
Step closer: read first-hand features on the projects and people doing the work, written with Germany's leading research institutions.
The international campaigns of the BMFTR foster innovation by supporting international cooperation with nations of high research and technology potential. Each campaign is dedicated to a thematic priority or a partner nation and invites relevant top-class research networks based in Germany to showcase their projects, technologies and innovation competence abroad. This allows the networks to meet international partners and strengthen ties to advance research and technology and develop solutions for pressing challenges of the future.
Get to know the Helmholtz Association, Max Planck Society, Leibniz Association and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft — who they are and what they offer.
Found a field that fits? Search scholarships, grants and open research positions relevant to your career stage and discipline.
PhD, postdoc or advanced research position? Find the right path for where you are now and where you want to be.