News

"Academic freedom cannot be taken for granted" is the key message of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) that recently published a paper on current vulnerabilities in the German research ecosystem to attacks on both individual and discipline-wide levels. In their paper "Strengthening the Academic Freedom and Resilience of Research", the authors lay out the motives and forms of attacks against academic freedom and provide researchers and institutional stakeholders alike with practical recommendations for action. These include both preventative measures to build resilience and concrete instruments for responding to acute threats.

With this paper, the DFG takes a proactive approach towards a stronger research community. It encourages German academia not to remain a bystander amidst recent national and international developments marked by declining trust in institutions. Instead, researchers and institutions should actively prepare for an increasingly hostile environment —not only by taking a deeper look at how their work is communicated, but primarily by building strong networks and practicing solidarity to withstand divide-and-rule strategies.

Read the DFG's position paper "Strengthening the Academic Freedom and Resilience of Research" (available in German and English).