Support for the Association in the Recommendations by the Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation

BIO Deutschland welcomed the recommendations made by the Federal Government’s Commission of Experts for Research and Innovation, which were published at the beginning of March. The Commission has recommended that targeted support for research and innovation conditions be provided, including and above all in the private sector, and particularly during the current worldwide economic crisis. If this does not occur, the Commission fears that in the future a substantial amount of the resources needed to ensure Germany’s competitive position as a significant player in the knowledge economy in the medium term will not be available. Small and medium-sized companies in particular are the engine for the creation of innovations and jobs and can help to secure the future of the German economy.

Peter Heinrich, Chairman of the Board of BIO Deutschland, stressed his support for the demands made by the Commission of Experts. "In the medium and long term, Germany’s competitive position in the field of advanced technologies will be at risk if research and innovation is not further supported and if the major obstacles in the tax system are not removed." Heinrich also emphasised that especially during the current worldwide economic crisis, the corporate tax reform, which has already been strongly criticised in the past by innovative small and medium-sized companies, will have a particularly negative impact and he therefore urgently called for amendments to be made to the law.

Jan Schmidt-Brand, a financial expert on the board of BIO Deutschland, pointed out that the improved availability of credit, one of the features of the German Federal Government’s second recovery package, will only be of limited help to innovative companies as equity capital, rather than credit, is by far the most important source of finance for innovations. Schmidt-Brand added that the abolition of discrimination against small innovative companies in the case of stake purchases by the unlimited offsetting of losses against future profits is the first essential step needed to mobilise private capital for research and innovation.