Werner Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bayer AG

“For a country poor in natural resources such as Germany, innovation has always played a significant role with respect to prosperity and competitiveness. Today, we are living in the Age of Globalization - for this reason, Germany must focus an increased major interest on research-intensive, high-quality products or services. Within the scope of global competition and as response to the challenges of our time – such as for example energy management and climate change, health and safety - the capability to be innovative makes the decisive difference.

Bayer is an innovator-company, and innovation is the focus of attention in our business strategy. However, this demand is nothing new to us. We can look back on a long lasting tradition of epoch-making inventions which had a revolutionary impact on medicine, chemistry, and raw material development. Only in this year, we are planning to invest an amount of about 2.8 billions Euro in research and development. Our more than eleven thousand researchers and developers are filing an average number of three patent applications on each working day. But innovation has a much more important meaning to us: values which cannot be expressed by figures.  Bayer’s company culture has been characterized by inventive talent and the willingness to guarantee successful research. In this regard, we are following our clear overall concept: “Bayer: Science For A Better Life“.

Bayer wants to improve the quality of life by providing knowledge, research and innovation in the field of health, food, and high-quality materials. We want to make a contribution to the fight against diseases, we want to create a basis for healthy and sufficient food, and we want to make our daily life safer, more comfortable, and also more ecology-minded.

However, Bayer is not only doing researches itself, but is also supporting external research and scientists, and, as a consequence, it is supporting innovative solutions having a positive impact on the development of our society. Among other things, our “Bayer Science & Education Foundation“ awards a prize to outstanding scientists on every year. Therefore, it is a great pleasure for us to support the German Future Prize. This prize is a symbol for the significance and esteem of research and technology. It places scientists in the spotlight, thereby ensuring that outstanding achievements of scientists will by duly honored in public. Our society’s awareness of technology and its chances to improve our daily life must be stronger raised in order to become accepted and to be able to tap its full potentials. In this respect, the German Future Prize constitutes a significant contribution.“