Open and autonomous. The basis for trust in science

While it is yet too early to assess the exact proportions and repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems undeniable to me that it does have a historic dimension. There will be many respects in which future historians will divide epochs in a “before” and an “after Corona”. One of those respects in which COVID-19 is a game changer is the role of science in society. Never before has the global reaction to a devastating catastrophe been so crucially dependent on the speed and success of scientific research. Politicians in many countries let it be known that scientific results were essential for their decision making. Science-related news were consistently in the headlines for much of the year 2020, at times even outshining reports on the acrimonious fight for the US presidency. At the Council for Sciences and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat), we have immediately begun to ask ourselves what this new level of attention, and the pressure which it exerts on a number of scientific fields, mean for science as a system. At first sight, this might seem an almost frivolous question to ask. Is this not a Kennedy moment, a moment best captured in the famous quote from John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” And indeed, in asking what the pandemic means for science, at the Council we are not asking whether it is good or bad for science; we are asking what it tells us about science. As has been noted by many people before, the health crisis and its social and economic repercussions have had such an enormous impact on virtually every part of our social and economic systems that we can consider it a kind of natural experiment. The year 2020 laid bare strengths and weaknesses of our societies. And it also laid bare strengths and weaknesses of our system of science, which became visible as if viewed under a magnifying glass. We should not miss the opportunity to learn from that. Not all of us are involved in the immediate response to the crisis. Those of us who are not should pay close attention. We should prepare for a speedy recovery, and we should start thinking about how we can improve the system. For many of the weaknesses and defects that became visible during the pandemic are not easily mended, but will take years of hard work to repair, reconstruct, and redesign. As an advisory body that assists the federal government and state governments in Germany with reports and recommendations on the organisation and funding of research