Science under Pressure: Exchange on Attacks on Research and Strategies to Strengthen Democratic Resilience

As part of the mentoring program, an online short lecture followed by an open exchange took place in November under the title “Science under Pressure – Between Attack and Action.” The speaker, Matthias Fejes, Press Officer of TUD and advisor at Scicomm-Support, the national contact point for attacks and inappropriate conflicts in science communication, outlined current developments related to hostility toward science and presented research findings, statistics, and case studies.

He also discussed how scientific institutions and democratic societies can respond to the growing number of attacks on science, and concluded by introducing the support services that Scicomm offers to researchers.

The event brought together female researchers from several German universities (TUD, University of Konstanz, LMU Munich, among others), who used the opportunity to exchange personal experiences with attacks on their research, share approaches to building support networks, and discuss strategies for personal protection. This open dialogue not only facilitated knowledge exchange across institutional boundaries but also strengthened the network among the participating researchers.