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Alarmed by the victory of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in an east German state government election, major higher education organisations have made urgent pleas to uphold academic freedom.
External influences - such as politics, funding and the media - are increasingly putting the autonomy of research under pressure.
On 30 January 2026, the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat, WR) published its future agenda for Germany as a centre of science and research, entitled "Science in Germany - Perspectives until 2040". sets out a future agenda for Germany as a centre of science.
The Russell Group of UK research-intensive universities has proposed a series of measures that would help increase collaboration between academic institutions in the UK and Germany.
Centre-right leader Friedrich Merz is expected to become chancellor in a new coalition following election.
Three years after the attack on Ukraine, positions are changing, but there is no more money in Germany for military research.
Two leading figures in German research see it as stuck in a ‘deep slump’. But more money is not necessarily the answer.
The EU's next framework research programme should continue funding projects aimed at bridging Europe's research and innovation gap, Germany's largest research organisation said in a paper highlighting their priorities for the successor of Horizon Europe.
The German U15 group of research-intensive universities has signed a long-term agreement to support closer ties between researchers and universities at its Canadian counterpart, U15 Canada.
Germany's federal research minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is calling for sweeping reforms at the Fraunhofer Society, one of Europe's most prestigious applied research organisations, after auditors found "numerous violations" of financial rules, including members of the executive board exceeding spending limits for hotel stays and hiring luxury cars.
In 2019 the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) set up a new service, the Competence Centre for International Academic Cooperation (KIWi). It's been hugely popular, and the DAAD believes it's time to give it a boost.
Germany universities should carry out risk assessments when collaborating with China on sensitive technologies, after a string of investigations revealed that German researchers have been working on projects useful to the Chinese military.
A year has passed since Russia started to wage a gruesome war against Ukraine. Aside from causing thousands of deaths, displacing millions and causing a pan-European economic crisis, the invasion triggered a fundamental rethinking of German policy.
The European Commission is making a big push to reform research assessment, but Germany's university leaders are not convinced the call for change from above is the right way to deliver it.
This analysis uncovers new dimensions of migration among scholars by investigating the return migration of published researchers, which is critical for the development of science policy.
Germany's Jülich Supercomputing Centre has added a quantum computer to its existing high performance computing infrastructure, enabling the centre to get involved in practical applications of quantum computing at a very early stage, as the technology moves out the lab and into commercial use.
The research and higher education plans of the new german government include a new national technology transfer agency, better living support for students, and more job security for early career academics.
