Research and Innovation at the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences

The Helmholtz Centre Potsdam – German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), which currently has about 1200 employees, is the national research centre for EarthSciences in Germany. With an annual budget of about 100 million Euros, GFZ works in all the disciplines of the Earth sciences from geodesy to geoengineering, as well as in theassociated natural and engineering topics and international project management.The presentation introduces to the main research areas of GFZ and refers to theinternational activities as the backbone of GFZ’s research. Major challenges such as climate change ornatural hazards,can only be tackled globally, over the long term and with a coordinated and systematic use of resources. Therefore GFZmaintain numerousstrategic partnerships with institutions and organizations all over the world, including Iran. A defining attribute of GFZ is the creation and integration of innovation and entrepreneurship components to foster and link R&I with market needs. In this regardGFZ is committed to carrying out ambitious basic research geared towards practical applications in the real world. The transfer of knowledge and technology plays a decisiverole in achieving this. It ensures that research findings flow directly into society and policymaking processes or are channeled into commercial innovations. The presentationintroduces tonew transfer models and special funding instruments offered by theHelmholtz-Association to smooth the path towards commercial use. One example is Helmholtz-Enterprise , an Helmholtz Association initiative to support spin-offs from itsCenters. The funding allows potential company founders to strategically develop their spin-off to position it successfully on the market with the help of external (interim) management. Most recently a new GFZ spin-offhas been approved for funding with up to 260.000€ of seed capital from thefunding program Helmholtz-Enterprise .

Keywords:

GFZ , Earth Sciences , natural hazards , market needs , technology transfer , entrepreneurship , commercial use