Cross-border cooperation between business and science

The German Eureka Office at the DLR Projecktträger (DLR-PT)

In the European Eureka network, companies and science find particularly flexible opportunities for cross-border cooperation. The German Eureka Office at DLR-PT advises the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on strategic issues, designs funding measures and supports applicants and projects.

How can Germany and Europe remain competitive? Through innovations. And how can these innovations be promoted? By providing companies and science with a flexible framework for cross-border cooperation in research and development. The European research network Eureka is an important stimulus in this regard.

Eureka is open-topic and application-oriented. It thus offers innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their research partners in particular a great deal of freedom in shaping their collaborations. In Eureka projects, the partners develop new products, processes and services from all fields of technology across borders – and determine the content and scope of their cooperation themselves.

The BMBF represents Germany in the Eureka network. For over 30 years, the Ministry has relied on the expertise of the Eureka Office .

We advise and support the BMBF in political decision-making in the Eureka bodies. This includes, for example, strategic issues such as the inclusion of new international partner countries or the design of the Eurostars programme in cooperation with the European Commission. To this end, we continuously monitor current trends in the national, European and international research and innovation landscape and derive well-founded recommendations.

We actively support the BMBF in the implementation of bilateral and multilateral funding measures throughout their entire cycle: we take on the coordination with European and international partner countries and develop funding calls. In addition, we advise German SMEs, universities and research institutions on funding opportunities and on submitting applications under the Eureka umbrella. We provide comprehensive support to German partners in Eureka projects throughout the entire project duration. For projects funded by the BMBF, our experienced funding managers handle the funding.