Announcement and Date Notification: DFG Annual General Meeting to be Held in Freiburg from 27 to 29 June 2022
First face-to-face meeting after two years in digital format due to the coronavirus pandemic / Official function including speech by DFG President Katja Becker on “Science and war”
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is due to hold its 2022 Annual General Meeting in Freiburg im Breisgau from 27 to 29 June. This is the first time since 2019 that Germany’s largest research funding organisation and central self-governing body for science and the humanities has met face-to-face, since the 2020 and 2021 DFG Annual General Meetings were held exclusively in virtual format due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The three-day event hosted by the University of Freiburg will involve meetings of all of the DFG’s central bodies, including the Executive Committee the Senate, Joint Committee and the General Assembly. The sessions will be held in hybrid format, with committee members being able to participate either on site or virtually. The presentation ceremony for the Communicator Award and the official function will be the first public events to be held in connection with the DFG Annual General Meeting since 2019.
“We are delighted to be able to welcome our committee members and our numerous colleagues from academia, politics and society in person once again after such a long time. Over the past two years we have made important decisions at our virtual annual meetings, not least underlining the role and importance of knowledge-driven research, especially in crisis situations such as the coronavirus pandemic. However, video conferencing and streaming is no real substitute for face-to-face engagement and in-person discussion. All the more reason for us to look forward to spending these days together in Freiburg,” says DFG President Professor Dr. Katja Becker. For her, this will also be the first time she has attended an Annual General Meeting in person since her election three years ago in Rostock.
The agenda for the sessions of the Senate and the Joint Committee on 27 and 28 June includes reports and discussions on current issues such as international research cooperation and sustainability. The two bodies will also be making funding decisions as well as adopting other resolutions relating to the DFG’s funding activities.
At the General Assembly on 29 June, DFG President Becker and Secretary General Dr. Heide Ahrens will provide the representatives of the 97 member institutions with a review of the DFG’s funding activities since last year’s General Assembly in July 2021. The DFG’s “2021 Annual Report” will also be presented at the General Assembly, containing the main figures and data on funding work. In its presentation of selected research projects for the year under review, the report focuses on DFG-funded work on the further investigation of the coronavirus and the coronavirus pandemic with its diverse scientific, political, economic and social implications. Like the preceding sessions of the Senate and the Joint Committee, the General Assembly will also address issues of equality and diversity in science. The agenda here will additionally include elections to the DFG’s Executive Committee and Senate.
The official function as part of the Annual General Meeting will take place from 7 p.m. on 28 June at Bürgerhaus Seepark. Here the DFG will welcome the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, and the Bavarian State Minister for Science and the Arts and Vice-Chairman of the Joint Science Conference (GWK), Markus Blume, both of whom will address guests from science, politics and society, as will the Mayor of Freiburg, Martin Horn. In her own address, DFG President Katja Becker will talk on the subject of “Science and War”.
This year’s Communicator Award, conferred by the DFG and Stifterverband, will be presented at 7 p.m. on Monday, 27 June in the auditorium of the University of Freiburg. Worth €50,000, the award this year goes to the public philosophy project denXte at the University of Düsseldorf, which uses innovative and participatory thought experiments to provide access for interested members of the public to philosophical questions and key problems. The award will be presented by DFG President Becker and the former President of the Stifterverband, Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Barner. The laudation for the award-winning team will be given by Professor Dr. Julika Griem, Vice President of the DFG and chair of the Communicator Award jury.
Further Information
Media contact:
- Marco Finetti
Head of Press and Public Relations at the DFG
Tel. +49 228 885-2109
presse@dfg.d
Notes on media relations:
The DFG will provide information on funding decisions and other important resolutions adopted by the Senate, Joint Committee and the General Assembly in a series of press releases to be issued on 28 June (at around 4 p.m.) and 29 June (at around 2 p.m.).
All press releases on the 2022 Annual General Meeting are also to be found in a digital press kit at
which is supplemented on an ongoing basis.
Accompanying information is also available on the DFG website at www.dfg.de/e and via social media at https://twitter.com/dfg_publi
The 2021 DFG Annual Report can be requested with an embargo until 30 June 2022 from
Representatives of the media are cordially invited to the two public events (the presentation ceremony for the Communicator Award on Monday 27 June, 7 p.m. in the auditorium of the University of Freiburg, and the official function on Tuesday 28 June, 7 p.m., Bürgerhaus Seepark). If you wish to attend, please register in advance by contacting presse@dfg.de. The registration deadline is 12 noon on the day of the event.