On the occasion of the agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD on establishing a special federal fund for infrastructure investments and the associated deliberations in the current Bundestag, the President of the German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz; HRK), Prof Dr Walter Rosenthal, said today in Berlin:
"I strongly welcome the agreement to set up a special fund for urgently needed infrastructure investments. When it comes to the concrete implementation of the project, it will be important to strengthen academic and research infrastructures in the long term as well as to develop the full innovation potential of our universities. The backlog of renovation and modernisation work on university infrastructures has now led to a need for investment in a three-digit billion amount. The lack of investment has massively been slowing down the pace of innovation in our country. University campuses, laboratories, libraries, computer centres, the entire digital infrastructure and its security, as well as spaces for modern study are key future infrastructures with which universities play a decisive role in shaping the dynamics of innovation in research, business and society. Setting up the special fund now is the right thing to do and an important step. Academic and research infrastructures must be urgently and sustainably adapted to changing research requirements and utilisation concepts as well as to current energy standards and made fit for the future in a joint effort by the federal and state governments. Every euro invested here pays off.”
