Innovative strength through data use: RatSWD position on the coalition agreement for the 21st legislative period

Easily accessible and linkable research data benefits society as a whole. It strengthens Germany as a research location, increases innovative strength and improves the basis for political decisions. The Research Data Act, which is due to be presented this year, will play a key role here. Data must be available for research in compliance with data protection regulations and it must be possible to link them. The establishment of data trustees and the introduction of a “student ID” and “citizen ID” announced in the coalition agreement are therefore to be welcomed. The RatSWD recommends building on the preliminary work on the Research Data Act from the last legislative period and taking into account the existing, high-performance landscape of research data centers accredited by the RatSWD.

The German Data Forum also welcomes the other measures announced in the coalition agreement:

• Establishment of an education history register in cooperation with the federal states: This can improve the research basis in the education sector and increase the efficiency of the education system through more targeted education policy. Research should be involved in the concrete design of the register at an early stage.
• Improving data exchange in the health sector: The German Data Forum welcomes the intention to further improve data exchange within the framework of the Health Data Use Act and to present a register law. In addition, it should also be possible to link health data with data covered by the planned Research Data Act in accordance with data protection regulations. In this way, important policy-relevant questions at the interface of medicine, healthcare research and social and economic sciences could be answered with data support.
• Empirical tax research: The RatSWD welcomes the plan to sustainably transfer empirical tax research into efficient structures. The Network for Empirical Tax Research (NeST) established in recent years should therefore be continued and sustainably financed.

The high-tech agenda embedded in the coalition agreement with the creation of AI centers of excellence and the commitment to a research and innovation-friendly EU digital policy are also important topics for science. Research and development activities play a key role for growth and prosperity in Germany, which is why the announced 3.5% of GDP for the promotion of research and development is urgently needed. The promised continuation of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) is a strong and important commitment to sustainable data infrastructures in Germany.

It is now crucial to promptly implement the goals formulated in the coalition agreement through effective, adequately funded measures in order to sustainably strengthen the research landscape in Germany and promote innovation. The RatSWD is available to support this with its many years of expertise.