What needs to change in scientific policy to allow for more diversity?
In October, the commission for education, research and technical consequences assessment of the German parliament invited us to give our opinion to this question in an expert exchange. We responded in the light of recent political discussions on the amendment of the ‚WissZeitVG‘ and backed up by comprehensive survey data. Find our statement in German and English below.
While science appears to be a highly international and diverse workplace on the outside, a closer look reveals frequent reports of discrimination and micro-aggression and a lot of room for improvement when it comes to equal opportunities. We identified four areas in demand of policy change to allow for more diversity by providing more healthy and more equitable working environments. These are: prevention of power abuse, abolition of stipends, 100% payment for full-time work, and minimum contract durations of 4 years. In our statement, we describe why these changes are necessary and also relate them to current political debates, like those on the planned changes to the ‚WissZeitVG‘ (the law governing work contracts in science).