Under the motto “The Federal Government's high-tech strategy starts with children”, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), under the auspices of Federal Minister of Education and Research, Dr. Annette Schavan, launched the Innovation League to promote scientific-technical studies through partnerships between schools, companies and research institutes.

As in sports leagues, the name “Innovation League” refers to the international competition to find the best innovations and the best people. Like in sport, this needs well-practiced teams, good trainers, experts, sponsors, marketing and numerous partners.
 
For instance, the Innovation League has set itself the task of developing 1,000 regional partnerships between schools, companies and research facilities. The BMBF sponsored OptecNet competency networks with their 400 members from business and science will play a special role in this respect. The industry associations from the high-tech industries, VDMA, SPECTARIS, VDI and ZVEI as well as Messe München will also support the initiative.

Activities range from guest speeches at schools, regular visits to companies and institutes, setting up experiment facilities for school visits in universities, consulting services for larger projects, study advice for older pupils, practical introduction internships and even sponsoring of the corresponding equipment for the schools. The project is sponsored by the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Dr. Annette Schavan.

You can find more information about school projects at www.optischetechnologien.de under Bildung, Innovationsliga [Education, Innovation League].