The Max Planck Society recently uploaded a German position paper defining “Six Goals for Science policy after the Federal Elections” in fall 2021.((The pdf file is available via https://www.mpg.de/16890037/mpg-positionspapier-wissenschaftspolitik.pdf. There is no publication date or even an identifier. An English version is – not yet – available.)) The document postulates a “time of change” and sees a central role for science in overcoming the pandemic time.
From the perspective of the Max Planck Society, six goals are crucial for the German government in the upcoming legislative period:
- Substantially fund research
- Increase agility
- Adapt the research system architecture in a targeted manner
- Expand Max Planck Schools as networks of excellence
- Advanceing digitalisation
- Secureing freedom for science
RDM in the Context of Digitalisation
The aspect of research data management is mentioned under position 5 “Advancing digitalisation”:
“The focus of science policy should be on establishing digital sovereignty, establishing research data management, expanding digital infrastructures and strengthening open access publication models.”((Please not that this is not a authorised translation. The German original phrase is: “Die wissenschaftspolitischen Schwerpunkte sollten auf der Herstellung digitaler Souveränität, der Etablierung des Forschungsdatenmanagements, dem Ausbau digitaler Infrastrukturen und der Stärkung von Open-Access-Publikationsmodellen liegen”, p. 2 down.))
This description quite vividly reflects the many stages the RDM is in the different institutions by the Max Planck Society. Likewise interesting is the position of RDM; namely between digital sovereignty and infrastructure. It remains to be observed how this field will develop in the future.