DW-TV: What programs will your ministry be supporting?

Georg Schütte: Well, it entails a lot of research projects. We do research on the 'system earth,' we try to understand how the system earth operates. We organize the launch of satellites, we run research vessels in the Antarctic oceans, so we try to understand how climate change affects earth; we try to understand how to secure the energy supply of the earth in a number of countries - in Germany and in other countries. And we use this 'Year of Science' to reach out to a broader public, to make knowledgeable - to have people understand what kind of role science does play in order to find solutions for future challenges.

And what effects is your program having internationally? The research is based here.

Well, the research is based in Germany, but it's connected internationally. We cooperate with partners in 62 countries on five continents. We've seen an example from research which is being done in Hanoi and in Darmstadt, in Germany. Another example would be the foundation of regional science centers in Africa in order to help to understand how climate change affects a number of African countries and what kind of conclusions we can draw from that - how do we organize land use, how do we organize farming in those countries. So we cooperate with partners in 10 countries in West Africa, and we have partners in five countries in southern Africa in order to find local solutions for those global challenges.

OK, and that's all fantastic, but realistically, what can we expect from this 2012 "Year of Science?" Do we really need it?

We suppose that 20 years after the Earth Summit in Rio, we haven't found the solutions which we need for sustainable life on earth, so it's worthwhile to invest in science and research in order to find new answers, in order to find new solutions. And these solutions cannot only be technological solutions. They have to be economic solutions; there have to be societal solutions. And so it is important to involve not only the research community, but rather to involve citizens' groups, to involve enterprises, to involve the business world in order to find more encompassing ways of how to tackle those future challenges.

So you're coming at it from a variety of angles. Talking of the financial aspect, what money is actually involved in this particular 2012 project?

Well, we are going to invest more than a billion euro in sustainability research in the coming years. If we focus on the field of energy research as an example, we are going to invest 350 million euro in energy research, just from the side of our ministry. And there are other federal ministries involved who also sponsor research on renewable energies. So we are going to invest a whole lot of money in order to enable science to find solutions.

(Interview: Anne O'Donnell)