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Statement by the undersigned professional societies in the natural and life sciences on the planned amendment to the law on temporary contracts in the sciences (Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz)
An adjustment of the framework conditions to improve the career paths of young scientists within and outside academic institutions is very welcome from the perspective of the natural and life sciences. In addition to the necessary adjustment of the funding and personnel structures of academic institutions, this also includes the intensively discussed amendment to the German Academic Fixed-Term Contract Act (WissZeitVG}. Based on the BMBF's draft bill of June 6, 2023, the Federal Cabinet recently adopted a draft law that is now being discussed in parliament. The draft provides for a maximum 6-year doctoral phase and a subsequent maximum 4-year postdoc phase. In addition, two further years of fixed-term employment with binding target agreements for the transition to a permanent position are to be made possible.
The undersigned scientific and life science societies welcome in principle the efforts to enable better planning and reliability of scientific careers, but point out the following critical points:
- In the natural and life sciences as well as in biomedicine, the planned duration of the two qualification phases (max. 6 years up to the doctorate, [4+2] years as a postdoc) would in principle be only just sufficient in some- but not all- subject areas to achieve the project successes required for a professorship in the form of extensive data sets, independent...