Zwanzig20 Program/Initiative Smart³, Funding Scheme from the 14 German Federal Ministry of Education and Research

Eastern Germany has outstanding economic and scientific expertise. The program “Zwanzig20 – Partnership for Innovation” systematically expands these for the future. With “Zwanzig20 – Partnership for Innovation”, the German Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF) has added a new approach to the “Enterprise Region” funding programs, which is aimed at supra-regional, inter-, trans-and multidisciplinary collaborations between partners and stands for openness and transparency. Those are the main gaps which had to be addressed by means of a program. The Zwanzig20 program, which is endowed with up to 500 million euros, is designed to systematically expand the outstanding economic and scientific competencies built up in eastern Germany for the future through cross-regional and interdisciplinary collaborations. The aim is to overcome boundaries in thinking, as well as boundaries of technologies, scientific disciplines, industries, markets and organizational cultures. The aim is to identify future issues with high social and economic relevance and to develop concrete, economically viable solutions for them. One of the Zwanzig20 funded projects consortia is the smart³ initiative focusing on a paradigm shift in innovations through smart materials.

The instrument is focused on a network and cluster building approach and alliances of a new kind. Zwanzig20 requires project consortia to strategically network and position themselves across all eastern German states with one or more partners from western Germany and beyond, including at the international level. To this end, the funded consortia have initiated new, open and reflexive processes of network management and forced the establishment of new kinds of innovation structures.