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Production technology is the bridge between laboratory and factory. It takes results from research areas such as nanotechnology, materials research, or microsystems technology and turns them into applications for industry. The fact that Germany's trade figures of 18.3 per cent place it at the very top worldwide is largely due to the discovery and invention of processes and pro - duction engineering. In mechanical engineering, for example, about 28 per cent of all the patents in the world come from Germany. The demands made on products and production processes are constantly changing. In order to keep up with the trends and, indeed, also set them, German companies can rely on a close-knit research network, such as the Fraunhofer Gesell - schaft's science and industry network "Production" or the "Learned Society for Production Engineering", WGP.

That Germany has profited from setting standards at an early stage is  demonstrated by the examples of safety at work and protecting resources. Globally, there is growing demand for products and processes which are fully developed in this respect. So that industry and research can profit from each other, the Federal Government provides funding for science and industry projects. The emphasis lies on strengthening cooperation between manufacturers and suppliers, the use of nano- and microtechnology, protecting against product piracy and investigating flexible production systems for customer-specific production. Funding totalling approximately 60 million euros has been made available. About two-thirds of this sum goes to enterprises, almost two-thirds of which are medium-sized. Who gets the funding, how much and for what purpose is discussed regularly in expert sessions involving companies, scientists and representatives of organisations. Competitions for ideas single out the best science and industry consortia. So far, 237 science and industry projects with more than 1,400 partners have been or are still able to put their ideas into practice because half the costs have been taken on by the government.