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Science Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger © IMAGO/dts news agency
The funding of research must not be dependent on political good behavior. But Bettina Stark-Watzinger’s ministry has not dispelled the suspicion. The guest post
Freedom means, as a human being, not having to hold back what I think and what I say.” This is what the Deputy Secretary General of the German UNESCO Commission, Lutz Möller, said in his greeting address for the Science Year “Freedom”, which Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger ( FDP) had announced for 2024. But this year of all years, in the wake of a “funding scandal”, doubts arise as to whether the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) respects freedom.
The BMBF itself fueled the doubts with its reactions to an open letter against the evacuation of a pro-Palestinian protest camp at the Free University on May 7th. In it, hundreds of teachers at Berlin universities declared their commitment to the “right to peaceful protest, which also includes the occupation of university premises”. First, Stark-Watzinger implicitly questioned via the Bild newspaper that the signatories were standing on the basis of the Basic Law. Soon afterwards it became known that work was being done in her house on a list with the names of the signatories of the open letter who received funding from the BMBF.
To this day it cannot be said with certainty whether the intention was to cut funds, who initiated the audit and when Stark-Watzinger found out about it. The truth is coming to light in bits and pieces – through inquiries from the CDU/CSU faction in the Bundestag, interviews with the minister in the parliamentary committee and whistleblowers who leaked the contents of a chat between Stark-Watzinger and ministerial officials on the Wire messenger service.
Although the minister firmly and firmly claimed that an audit of funding law was never commissioned, but was only carried out temporarily based on a misunderstanding, she fired her state secretary Sabine Döring. As her successor, Stark-Watzinger promoted department head Roland Philippi, of all people, who in the wire chat actually wished for the scissors in his head that the deputy UNESCO Commission Secretary General feared out of concern about a possible withdrawal of funding, according to the undisputed press reports. In addition, Stark-Watzinger continues to stonewall, refuses to release the chat and has muzzled the sacked State Secretary.
A committee of inquiry could shed light on the matter. However, the Union faction is hesitant to apply for it – it is possible that in the debate with the traffic light coalition, science policy does not have the same importance as economic or migration policy. While open criticism of the minister’s information policy is increasing significantly among the SPD and the Greens, the effort not to risk a coalition crisis as a result is evident.
No matter how the affair ends, the damage is already immense – in three ways.
Firstly, for academic freedom. Stark-Watzinger undermined the trust of researchers in the fundamental right of academic freedom in the year of science she declared “Freedom”. There is a fear that the allocation of funding could depend on political good behavior in the future. It is feared that scientists will hold back from making critical statements. This is particularly true because, due to the paradigm shift in research financing away from basic financing to project financing, the dependence on third-party funding has never been as great as it is today.
Secondly, the minister has damaged the research funding system as a whole. Not only the scientific quality of a project application, but also the political opinions of the applicants could be decisive for selection decisions. Word of this is likely to spread abroad and could deter international scientists.
Thirdly, the torturous funding affair is paralyzing the traffic light’s science policy, which is already in agony. The reform of the Science Temporary Contract Act is on hold, the structural reform of student loans promised in the coalition agreement to increase parental independence has been cancelled, projects such as the “Federal Digital University Program” or the permanent position program required by the Budget Committee are a long time coming.
In this respect, the minister and her cover-up tactics are becoming more and more of a burden – for the coalition, for academic freedom and for the entire academic system. She still has it in her own hands to lift the burden.
Andreas Keller is deputy chairman and university expert of the Education and Science Union (GEW)
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