Visit to State Secretary Judith Pirscher at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research

In September, Judith Pirscher, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), invited Oliver Schacht, Chairman of the Board of BIO Deutschland, and Viola Bronsema, the association's Executive Director, to a meeting. The achievements of biotechnology and the opportunities it offers for research and application in a wide range of areas were the subject of the discussion. In particular, Bronsema and Schacht discussed the biotech agenda called for by the association in relation to the recommendations of the German Chancellor's Council for the Future (Zukunftsrat des Bundeskanzlers). Last summer, the Council discussed the economic potential of key technologies for Germany as a business location with the Chancellor. Subsequently, the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) published a dossier entitled “Lost in Translation?” – Approaches to Unleashing the Societal and Economic Potential of Biotechnology. The biotech agenda proposed by BIO Deutschland e. V. reflects the recommendations of the councilors. It envisages the following fields of action: agenda setting, increasing location expertise, setting the regulatory framework, networking and inclusion, cross-value-added and transnational implementation, and better framework conditions for entrepreneurship, a culture of advancement and innovation.The State Secretary explained the measures that have already been initiated and those that are planned by the government, which could also be beneficial for the biotechnology industry. Judith Pirscher has been State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since January 2022. Before moving to Berlin, she was District President of the administrative district of Detmold in North Rhine-Westphalia. From 2011 to November 2019, she served as a state councilor at the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe for the LWL-Bau- und Liegenschaftsbetrieb and as managing director of the municipal pension funds of Westphalia-Lippe.