Message from the Federal President

Dear friends of the Deutscher Zukunftspreis,

The history of humanity is closely interwoven with technological breakthroughs – from fire-making to the printing press, industrialisation and now the AI revolution. These advances have continually expanded the boundaries of our knowledge and our abilities – and confronted us with new questions. In many corners of the world, people today enjoy longer and better lives than ever before. At the same time, we have had to learn that new technological possibilities also bring new challenges for our civilisation: our appetite for energy and raw materials has grown faster than our planet can recover from the consequences of this development. Around the world, the repercussions – as can be seen at present in the case of climate change – hit those hardest who anyway have the least.

All the more urgent, then, is the need for technological innovations and ideas that enable us to advance successfully without endangering the livelihoods of each and every one of us. Innovations that protect resources and offer sustainable alternatives. Inventions that take account of both economic and environmental benefits.
At the same time, the potential of new technologies that can improve the lives and the health of people all over the world is far from exhausted. With the Deutscher Zukunftspreis, we are honouring the diverse contributions our country is making in these fields of research and development.

My thanks go to the many outstanding researchers whose work has been nominated for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier