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Research funding: The EU is saving its future to pieces

2020-09-20T15:05:16.277Z


We are currently experiencing three global crises at the same time, so top-class science is more important than ever. But the European Union wants to drastically reduce its research expenditure.


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Scientists at work (symbol photo)

Photo: Andrew Brookes / Westend61 / imago images

For a long time it was one of the basic principles of scientific thought and action to stay out of politics as far as possible.

In the beginning it was comparatively easy, if one did not come into conflict with the dogmas of the Catholic Church.

But at the latest with the direct, ever faster impact of science and technology in the societies of the world, the relationship to politics changed.

At the latest after the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Sputnik moment, it was clear that anyone who aspires to a global leadership role must be at the cutting edge of science.

In China, for example, this was clearly understood.

Breathtakingly fast

In the 21st century, the relationship between science and politics has changed again.

On the one hand, this has to do with the propaganda efforts of the companies, aimed at doubts about science itself, which have made a sensational amount of money for so many decades from the promotion of raw CO2.

On the other hand, however, also with the so-called Great Acceleration: The acquisition of scientific knowledge is now, viewed in terms of human history, breathtakingly fast.

Christian Stöcker, arrow to the right

Photo: SPIEGEL ONLINE

Born 1973, is a cognitive psychologist and has been a professor at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW) since autumn 2016.

There he is responsible for the "Digital Communication" course.

Before that he was head of the Netzwelt department at SPIEGEL ONLINE.

The gap between what specialists in their respective fields know and understand and what can be considered general education is growing ever wider.

This creates uncertainty and a mixture of fear and open rejection of research itself that can be observed in some places.

In the United States, as is well known, this state of mind made it into the White House.

Ever decreasing public share in the funding

Dealing with the coronavirus has brought it to the center of public attention: Everything happens incredibly quickly, but at the same time sometimes not fast enough for politics.

A second effect of this acceleration, which is often underestimated: cutting-edge research is becoming more and more expensive, also because it now depends so much on constantly further developed high technology as a tool.

According to figures from the Ministry of Research, in (West) Germany, for example, the equivalent of 16 billion euros was spent on research and development in 1981, slightly more than half of which was spent by private companies.

In 2018, the total for Germany as a whole was over 119 billion euros for research and development.

But now two thirds of it came from industry.

The public share had shrunk.

Unfortunately, a lot of the money comes from the same corner

Unfortunately, a huge part - in 2017 it was more than 25 billion euros - of the entire research and development expenditure in Germany (PDF document) on the automotive industry - which, as is well known, with all this money, has been obsolete for many years, especially combustion engines and most recently refined fraud systems.

Less should be invested in the creation of what we will need tomorrow.

The total amount of research and development tasks is therefore initially of little value as a benchmark - it depends a lot on who is investing money in what.

Nobel prizes, for example, are known to go to scientists working in universities or research institutes.

Freedom in thinking helps in research.

14 percent cut

In Germany, however, the percentage of public, i.e. not directly profit-oriented, research funding has been falling for many years.

In the past budget cycles, the European Commission had sensibly increased research expenditure at European level again and again.

As recently as 2018, the Commission proposed a total budget of 94.1 billion euros for the European research and development program called Horizon.

With the historically celebrated EU deal in July, the heads of state and government then cut this proposal down to 81 billion for the phase from 2021 to 2027 - including the money that is to be used to scientifically combat the pandemic.

That's a 14 percent cut.

There is always money for yesterday

For comparison: the EU spends around 60 billion euros on agricultural subsidies - every year.

Another comparison: According to the International Monetary Fund, the nations of Europe together invested 244 billion euros in subsidies for fossil fuels in 2017.

There is a lot of money going into the maintenance of yesterday.

Less should be invested in the creation of what we will need tomorrow.

If the drastic cut in funding remains, it would be a catastrophic sign for the future - and also for the way the European Union sees itself.

In the middle of a global pandemic, in the middle of a time when Europe is in danger of losing touch with the USA and China when it comes to machine learning, in the middle of the greatest global crisis in human history, the climate crisis.

In the middle of the sixth mass extinction in earth's history that we caused.

The problems are growing, the money used to understand and combat them - and for the future of the EU as a haven of cutting-edge technology - is drastically reduced.

"I do not understand that"

"I don't understand," said the mathematician Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the current chairman of the European Research Council (ERC), this week the science magazine "Nature".

The ERC alone was originally supposed to receive 14.7 billion euros.

Now it should be almost ten percent less.

Bourguignon demands that the decision be reversed.

The "Nature" editorial team, which tends to hold back politically, added in a comment: "We do that too."

The ERC is a sensationally successful research funding institution, even by international standards.

According to an evaluation, 16 percent of the projects funded by him deliver "scientific breakthroughs", a further 59 percent provide "major scientific advances".

Germany, so far always on the side of researchers, does not want to take sides for the ERC during its EU Council Presidency.

more on the subject

Covid-19 debate: Science is not a dream machineA column by Christian Stöcker

Catastrophic sign

In this time of great acceleration, the relationship between science and politics is closer and more dependent than ever before.

Without respect for science and not shrinking but growing funding for top research, we will not be able to cope with the crises of the present and the future.

The EU budget will probably be finalized by the end of the month.

If the drastic cut in funding remains, it would be a catastrophic sign for the future - and also for the way the European Union sees itself.

Icon: The mirror

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2020-09-20

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