The DFG and the German Embassy bring together German and American experts / Katja Becker: “Ensuring research security without restricting academic freedom”
German and US-American experts met in the US capital at the invitation of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) and the German Embassy Washington to discuss the topic of research security. The meeting on Thursday, 22 August 2024, at the DFG Office North America brought together more than 20 representatives from science and politics. One of the key questions was, how research security, which is exposed to multiple threats and attacks, can be guaranteed in international research cooperation without restricting research freedom. Another topic of the roundtable discussion was how the centre for research security recently established in the USA could be a role model for research in Germany and Europe.
According to DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker, the international trend in research policy is currently very clearly moving towards prioritising security measures: “This means that even cooperation with like-minded countries is being made more difficult due to more controls and reporting requirements. Especially considering the pivotal role of research in tackling global challenges, this is in many ways playing with fire,” said Becker in her keynote speech. “We need to make
