Energy crisis: union faction calls for emergency funding for science

The Federalist faction in the Bundestag called on the Federal Government to convene an Energy Science Summit. The German scientific system must be protected from damage by the energy crisis. This stems from a request made by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group to the federal government, which is due to be presented in the Bundestag on Thursday and is available under the title “Research and Teaching”.

The Union faction accuses Federal Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark Watzinger of “lethargy”, which represents “a heavy burden on the management of the current crisis.” Search results should not fade due to broken cold chains, otherwise there will be “negative impacts on the performance” of Germany as a search site.

Calm down the research scene in Germany

“Not one euro has been earmarked for education and research” in the federal government’s relief packages that have been identified so far. The Federation faction is calling for an energy summit with all players in the scientific system to determine their energy requirements and costs. Accordingly, the federal and state governments should provide a “relief package for science” as well as create an emergency fund for science. Lectures should not be canceled due to the energy crisis, and PhD positions should not be reduced for cost reasons.

The CDU/CSU Parliamentary Group describes research institutes with increasing energy requirements as particularly at risk, such as critical databases that rely on continuous cooling, large-scale research facilities such as German Electron Synchrotron (DESY), high-performance and high-performance computers and IT infrastructure. . The Federal Network Agency should be instructed to ensure priority energy is provided to justified need research institutions as “protected clients” in emergency situations – so far this has been applied to schools and universities, but not to non-university research institutions. At the beginning of October, the Conference of Education Ministers also demanded that the federal government should include non-university research institutions and student unions in the protected customer pool in the event of a gas shortage.

As part of the Federal Government’s third relief package, it was decided that students would receive a one-time payment of €200. In addition, two heating cost subsidies were established for Bavage recipients: initially as part of the government’s first relief package in the amount of 230 euros and with the third relief package another 345 euros.