Leading up to the German elections this past weekend, there was a lack of discussion of science policy, writes the University of Manchester's Jakob Edler in the Guardian. Edler, who is a professor of innovation policy and strategy at Manchester and who previously held a similar position at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research in Germany, says that while the public research system appears to be holding up, it is under a number of long-term stressors that will need to be addressed.
For example, Edler says that while there is a push to get more and more students to go to university and focus on research, there is little room for them to build their own academic group after finishing their training.
"The system is under multiple long-term capacity pressures," he writes, adding that "Germany must have a real debate about what it really means to have a high quality, highly differentiated tertiary education system that really fits the long-term needs of the German economic model, the science system and society."