Astrid Lambrecht Appointed to German Chancellor’s Strategy Council for Technology and Innovation
7 November 2025
The Chair of the Board of Directors of Forschungszentrum Jülich, Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht, has been appointed by German Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz to the Chancellor’s strategy council for technology and innovation.
The council is the German Federal Government’s highest advisory body on innovation and technology policy. Comprising a small number of selected experts from science and industry, the council’s aim is to harness the potential of scientific research and businesses to strengthen Germany’s innovative capacity, competitiveness as an industrial location, and defence capabilities.
Alongside Chancellor Merz, the strategy council includes the following members of the Federal Government: Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, Research Minister Dorothee Bär, Economic Affairs Minister Katherina Reiche, Digital Minister Dr. Karsten Wildberger, and Head of the Federal Chancellery Thorsten Frei. The council’s administrative office is based at the German National Academy of Science and Engineering.
The topics discussed at the inaugural meeting, which took place yesterday, included strengthening innovation and competitiveness in the security and defence industry, as well as in the field of artificial intelligence.
Firstly, the rapid global development of AI and its potential for increasing productivity in science, business, and public administration were discussed. The members of the strategy council agreed that the importance of this future technology can no longer be considered solely in terms of value creation and prosperity in Germany, but must also be discussed in the context of current societal and geopolitical challenges.
Secondly, the council explored the potential for innovation in the security and defence industry. Against the backdrop of current Federal Government initiatives, the discussion focused on ways of further accelerating procurement processes, strengthening capability development through innovation spaces and iterative approaches, and generating economies of scale in production.
Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht is a quantum physicist and has been the head of Forschungszentrum Jülich since 2023. Before joining Jülich as a member of the Board of Directors responsible for the field of information in 2021, she was director of the Institute of Physics at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). She is Vice-President of the Helmholtz Association, has received numerous scientific awards, and has been a member of Leopoldina, the German National Academy of Sciences, since 2024.
“I am pleased by this appointment and the show of trust it represents, as well as by the valuable opportunity to contribute to strengthening Germany’s research and innovation landscape,” said Lambrecht. “Europe and Germany urgently need to better position themselves in the international technology race. Germany’s excellent research is a crucial factor that we must strategically harness to ensure our technological sovereignty and competitiveness. It is important to me to develop concrete recommendations and strategic measures that we can implement quickly and unbureaucratically and that will have a noticeable impact on our technological and digital sovereignty.”
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