Location Marketing

Promoting Germany as a study, research and innovation location is an important pillar of the Federal Government’s Internationalisation Strategy. The activities of the BMBF aim to enhance Germany's visibility as an attractive country for education, research and innovation under the brand 'Research in Germany – Land of Ideas'.

Logos An Initiative of the BMBF and Research in Germany

Global competitiveness and international attractivity are key features of a strong location for education, research and innovation. Communicating these strengths to target audiences worldwide and highlighting the opportunities a commitment in Germany or a network with German institutions offers, are key to strategic internationalisation.

For this reason, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched its inititaive 'Research in Germany - Land of Ideas' in 2006, followed  by many successful measures since. New models of cooperation with and within the German research landscape were introduced, thus taking the first steps towards professionalising and intensifying  the promotion of Germany as an international innovation hub. With research marketing campaigns that focus on a variety of thematic areas and countries, the BMBF has created an international platform for the German research landscape, which helps Germany as a whole to become better known and more visible.

The campaigns are an instrument to  enhance the international visibility of Germany's outstanding R&D landscape. First-class scientists, potential investors and foreign companies should become so enthusiastic about the location Germany, that they will carry out their activities in Germany and in cooperation with German research and innovation. For this purpose, excellent networks and existing successful cooperations on priority topics – such as the High-Tech Strategy of the Federal Government – or a priority country are highlighted by the campaigns. These success stories are meant to trigger further cooperation activities in Germany or with German scientists.

Since 2006, the BMBF has carried out 8 priority campaigns with the support of the DLR Project Management Agency, each with a geographical or thematic focus. The 9th campaign was launched in May 2019:

Every single campaign has made a valuable contribution to an overall very positive result. Key objectives of the participating networks were achieved, such as:

  • establish or deepen international contacts;
  • make achievements known in the target country;
  • establish cooperation with international partners;
  • improve the image of one's own network, but also of Germany as a whole in the target country;
  • find ways to exploit and apply research.

In addition, each campaign was met with a strong media presence. This was achieved through various activities such as trade fair visits, delegation trips or PR work, which highlighted Germany as an innovation location and shaped the image of Germany abroad as a 'land of ideas'.