The year of transformation

2022 may see the end of short-term contracts at German universities

Since Germany’s election in September, hardly a week has passed without a call to improve the working conditions of early and mid-career scientists, specifically the preponderance of short-term contracts. The year started with a statement from the German Psychological Society advocating the establishment of tenure-track positions for all postdoctoral researchers.

Criticism of the prevalence of short-term contracts in academia—about nine out of 10 researchers in Germany are on limited-term contracts—escalated in 2021 through a widely publicised social media campaign by scientists and organisations under the hashtag #IchBinHanna. The campaign was a reaction to an overly optimistic promotional video, created by the research ministry, that depicted the career of a fictional scientist on a short-term contract, called Hanna.