Lower Saxony has a diverse and dynamic research landscape, with 20 state universities, 25 research institutions financed by the federal and state governments, 16 other research institutions financed by the state, and five federal research institutions, as well as many innovative companies.
The research priorities of the federal state of Lower Saxony address the grand challenges of our time. To achieve its goals, the state has set its priorities in various areas of transformation based on key basic human needs and on those global opportunities of the future where the strengths of Lower Saxony’s science and economic systems lie.
Particularly in the areas of the agricultural and life sciences, energy, mobility, aerospace, marine and coastal research, and quantum technology, priorities are being set that are of great importance to the federal state for research into socially pressing issues or key economic topics. In six clusters of the Excellence Strategy, work is being done with international partners in areas ranging from infection research to aeronautics.
On the one hand, the state supports participation in national and European calls for proposals and in programmes of the Federal Government and the European Union; on the other hand, the state’s funding policy sets its own focus with profile-raising thematic calls for proposals. One focus is currently on funding offers in the agricultural and life sciences, energy, mobility, marine, coastal and climate, and the horizontal topic of digitalisation, which are all coordinated via the joint funding programme zukunft.niedersachsen. The development of the priority areas will be supported by establishing and expanding networks and alliances across universities and research institutions. This will strengthen supraregional cooperation, reinforce interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary development, and increase the focus on transfer and translation with the involvement of and civil society.
To support and complement this process, there are comprehensive programmes to fund start-ups, support knowledge and technology transfer and exploit technological innovations. The main objective is to strengthen the innovation and competitive potential of Lower Saxony, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises. A diverse range of research and transfer activities will contribute towards successfully managing the climate crisis, digital transformation and structural change in the regions of Lower Saxony.