In 2007, the Sparkling Science research funding programme, funded by the then Federal Ministry of Science and Research, was launched, in which schools and science worked together in close cooperation on current research issues.

Participants

More than 107,000 participants from 200 research institutions, 535 schools and 185 partners from business and society took part in this unconventional research programme that is unique in Europe. They worked together on current scientific issues in a total of 299 research projects. Around 34.9 million euros were available for this purpose until the end of the programme at the end of 2019.  

Extensive evaluations

Several evaluations on different aspects were conducted during the 12 years of the programme. They confirm the far-reaching effects of the cooperation between science and schools and show profound changes in the participating institutions.  

Thematic openness

In addition to the involvement of pupils and, in some cases, other committed citizen scientists in the research projects, the thematic openness was a key feature of the programme, which made it possible to promote a wide range of research topics. The spectrum ranged from medieval studies and didactics of writing, robotics and laser technology to soil ecology and microbiome research.  

A look back

The following pages provide an overview of all projects funded up to 2019, facts & figures on the programme, the results of the extensive evaluations, a selection of the teaching materials produced as part of the projects, the dissemination of the projects and the press review.