Yesterday, Federal Minister for Research Dorothee Bär presented the Federal Ministry's new Research for Sustainability (FONA) funding strategy in Berlin. The Ecological Research Network (Ecornet), a network of eight leading sustainability research institutes in Germany, welcomes the high priority that both the Minister personally and the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) attach to research supporting sustainability and economic transformation. The network also welcomes the Ministry's commitment to increasing support for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research addressing major societal challenges. To ensure the strategy is implemented effectively, the Ecornet institutes advocate a broader understanding of innovation, impact and knowledge transfer, and recommend placing greater emphasis on the social dimension of sustainability.

Dorothee Bär: "Sustainability must not slip down the agenda"

"We must do everything we can to ensure that sustainability does not slip down the agenda," the Minister said, referring to the rise in anti-science sentiment and climate change denial. She described the new Research for Sustainability (FONA) strategy as "a clear signal" of the Federal Government's commitment to preventing sustainability from losing momentum. Bär also stressed that sustainability is an investment in the future and a key driver of economic prosperity.

Ministry steps up support for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research on societal challenges

"The new FONA strategy rightly recognises interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research as a proven way of addressing the defining challenges of our time – from the climate crisis and biodiversity loss to resource scarcity and social change," says Flurina Schneider, Co-Spokesperson of Ecornet and Scientific Managing Director of the Institute for Social-Ecological Research (ISOE). "Compared with previous strategies, it also places greater emphasis on how research findings can be put into practice and scaled up."

"Transdisciplinary research opens up new ways of understanding complex societal challenges," Schneider continues. "By bringing together researchers, policymakers, businesses and civil society, it strengthens the development of sustainable solutions and helps ensure that research has a real impact in practice. For us, co-creation and real-world laboratories are not simply methodological add-ons – they are at the heart of how we do research."

Ecornet: Effective sustainability research requires a broader understanding of innovation

Ecornet welcomes the FONA strategy's strong focus on delivering tangible societal impact and translating research into practice across society and the economy. At the same time, compared with previous programmes, the strategy places a much stronger emphasis on technological innovation and its commercial uptake by businesses.

"To provide society with the most effective and promising solutions, we need a broad understanding of what innovation is and how it creates impact," says Thomas Korbun, Co-Spokesperson of Ecornet and Scientific Director of the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW).

From Ecornet's perspective, this is where the strategy could go further. While FONA places considerable emphasis on technological innovation and value creation, sustainability challenges are rarely technological alone. They are closely intertwined with social practices, institutional frameworks and questions of equity. The Ministry should therefore give greater prominence to the interplay between technological innovation, social innovation and behavioural change. This perspective should be embedded from the earliest stages of technology development and reflected in the design of future funding initiatives. Only then can innovations achieve lasting impact and be successfully translated into practice.

The Ecornet institutes also believe that the strategy gives insufficient attention to the social dimensions of sustainability. Issues such as employment, health, demographic change, and social justice and distributional equity are inseparable from environmental and technological challenges. Sustainable economic prosperity and quality of life can only be achieved by integrating technological development with both environmental and social sustainability.

"If the FONA strategy is to realise its full potential, it must embed social sustainability and questions of equity more firmly within innovation processes – particularly in the early stages of developing new innovations," Korbun concludes.

Align FONA consistently with the requirements of a socio-ecological transformation

Ecornet also calls for FONA to be underpinned by future-oriented, reliable funding mechanisms. Research funding should be consistently aligned with the needs of a socio-ecological transformation. This requires well-funded, long-term programmes, alongside agile funding structures with minimal administrative burden.

To ensure high-quality research and maximise its impact in practice, the scientific excellence of project proposals must remain the primary criterion for funding decisions.

Further developing the FONA strategy

Ecornet welcomes the strong alignment between the FONA strategy and the Federal Government's High-Tech Agenda. The network believes that the High-Tech Agenda should build on the strengths of FONA and continue to strengthen its contribution to sustainable transformation.

Ecornet also welcomes the Ministry's commitment to developing FONA as a "learning strategy". However, this ambition must be reflected in the way the strategy evolves. Unlike its initial development, which took place without stakeholder involvement, future revisions should be based on a participatory process that brings together the research community, businesses and civil society. The Ecornet institutes stand ready to contribute their expertise to the further development of both the FONA strategy and the High-Tech Agenda.

Ecornet brings together more than 1,000 staff across eight independent research institutes, all working to develop practical pathways towards environmentally sustainable and socially just futures. Our research on socio-ecological transformation is rooted in a vision of a democratic, vibrant society. Through our research and our transdisciplinary approach, we actively contribute to shaping the transformations needed for a sustainable future.

Ecornet members are: Ecologic Institute; ifeu – Institute for Energy and Environmental Research; Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW); ISOE – Institute for Social-Ecological Research; IZT – Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment; Öko-Institut; Independent Institute for Environmental Issues (UfU); and the Wuppertal Institute.