Research strategy and agenda

Source: BASE

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) has developed both a research strategy and an agenda to outline its research principles and priorities. The public was involved at an early stage of this process.

This public participation was the basis for a comprehensive review of the research strategy and agenda. They were amended and published in November 2019.

Research strategy

The research strategy defines long-term objectives and serves as a benchmark for all research activities at BASE. It is broad and flexible in scope, so as to accommodate potential long-term changes in research fields, ¬topics and questions. The strategy also allows for changes in the national and international research landscape.

Research agenda

The research agenda further specifies the objectives as set out in the research strategy. It provides a comprehensive overview of research in the field of nuclear waste management at BASE and serves to implement the research strategy. The agenda identifies topics that are relevant in the medium term, i.e. for a period of four years, and is updated every two years.

Public participation regarding strategy and agenda

BASE had initially published consultation versions of both the research strategy and the research agenda at the end of 2018, thus putting them up for discussion at an early stage. There were two participation formats that involved the (expert) public in the research planning process.

• Online consultation
• Expert workshop
• Results of the public participation

Online consultation:

At the end of 2018, the public was invited to review the strategy and agenda via online consultation. In total, BASE received nine particularly extensive statements from various organisations, associations and individuals as well as eleven online comments.

Expert workshop:

In January 2019, a public workshop on the future orientation of research was held in Berlin. 130 participants from various fields (authorities, research institutes, associations, etc.) discussed the agenda and strategy with the headline “research for nuclear safety”.

Results of the public participation:

BASE evaluated the comments, suggestions and needs of the participants as identified in the workshop as well as the suggestions from the online consultation.