Germany's Academic Policy Advisory System in Response to COVID-19

Abstract

The Corona Pandemic served as an opportunity to highlight the need for academic policy advice. In the case of Germany, it can be said that it has operated various types of academic policy advisory bodies in relation to socially important issues before the Corona Pandemic; various advisory committees for social and political issues have been frequently operated without being prescribed by Act, e.g. Ethics Committee for the Self-Driving Vehicle, the Data Ethics Committee, and the Competition Act 4.0 Committee for competition policy advice, etc. In line with this administrative and practical trend, Germany's federal government has established and operated an academic policy advisory committee called the Federal Corona Pandemic Expert Committee in relation to the COVID-19. Meanwhile, the German federal government has established and operated the Robert-Koch -Research Institute, which can be called a federal-level specialized institution, for the purpose of accumulating health-related expertise that can respond professionally to various diseases. Although the RKI has the status of a federal administrative agency, it is an administrative agency in charge of information collection, academic promotion, and data disclosure and evaluation related to various diseases. In addition, to enhance expertise in the field, RKI separately organizes and operates 18 expert advisory committees, and operates a standing vaccination committee and an expert advisory committee on epidemic respiratory infections in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to analyze the governance structure related to German academic policy advice and the legal effect of academic policy advice, and through this process, it aims to derive domestic implications for academic policy advice.