Research and funding

Currently, funding for environmental projects is provided in Germany by the following institutions:

• Federal ministry for the environment: https://www.bundesumweltministerium.de/ministerium/forschung#c33651
• German federal environmental foundation: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt
• https://www.laenderfinanzierungsprogramm.de 

The federal government provided extensive site remediation funding under the "Verwaltungsabkommen zur Regelung der Finanzierung ökologischer Altlasten" (VA-Altlastenfinanzierung) an administrative agreement that was concluded with the former East German regional states. The cleanup of abandoned brown-coal mine sites has also been financed under this agreement. The federal government has allocated around €6 billion for the “Wismut-Sanierung” remediation program, in the government’s capacity as legal successor to the former East Germany. This program began in 1991 and is scheduled to be completed by 2028. The German army’s contaminated-site remediation program provided €400 million in funding between 1991 and 2008. 

Currently, funding for environmental projects is provided in Europe by the following programmes:

• Horizon Europe
• Soil deal for Europe
• LIFE Programme
• European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
• Interreg

Germany has made substantial investments in site-contamination R&D since the 1980s, to the tune of more than €300 million in funding from the Ministry of Research and third parties. The projects funded by the BMBF have brought about major technical and scientific advances in conjunction with innovation and sustainability, via initiatives such as the following:

• KORA, the German acronym for “controlled natural retention and reduction of pollutants in connection with contaminated soil and groundwater remediation projects”
• RUBIN, the German acronym for “use of permeable cleaning walls for contaminated site remediation”
• REFINA, the German acronym for “land use reduction and sustainable land management”
• SAFIRA, the German acronym for “cleanup research for regionally contaminated aquifers”
• SAFIRA II, the German acronym for “revitalization of large and complex contaminated sites”
• TASK, the German acronym for “terrestrial and water contamination remediation clearing house”

On completion of these contaminated-site R&D initiatives, the Ministry of Research turned its attention to sustainable land management. However, a number of scientific and technical challenges remain to be solved, particularly for large and complex contaminated sites such as contaminant deposits at former brown-coal mines and contamination at abandoned chemical plants. Contamination in such cases usually cannot be cleaned up and hazards cannot be averted using conventional measures over a reasonable period. 

In such settings, it is particularly difficult to set feasible remediation objectives, and to optimally structure pollutant-source and pollution plume remediation measures. Support from scientific experts continues to be essential in such cases.

The European Commission’s ERA-NET scheme aims to promote coordination and reciprocal openness on the part of national and regional research programs. The ultimate goal is to achieve long term collaboration, as has currently implemented by the SOILveR - Soil and Land Research Funding Platform for Europe. EU funding has also provided support for networks such as the Common Forum on Contaminatd Land and the Network for Industrially Contaminated Land in Europe (NICOLE), as well as for transnational research alliances. For further information about European research in the area of contaminated sites, visit the EUGRIS website, an outgrowth of FP5, which was coordinated by the UBA.