After universities and colleges, the Greens in the state parliament are also criticizing CSU Science Minister Markus Blume for his policy on the high-tech agenda, the state government’s billion-dollar prestige project for research and technology. The minister “apparently doesn’t understand how a university works,” said Green Party deputy group leader Verena Osgyan on Monday. The background to her criticism is that Blume’s ministry is considering demanding large sums of money back from the universities and colleges that have already been earmarked for new research positions there. “It would be fatal if the Free State torpedoed this financing by withdrawing funds,” said Osgyan.
On Monday, the SZ reported on an incendiary letter from the University Conference and the Universities of Applied Sciences (HaW) to the Ministry of Science. It says that the goals of the high-tech agenda are “massively endangered”. If the Free State were to withdraw the planned funds, there would be “the risk of a loss of reputation for the Bavarian state government as a reliable financier of world-leading science.” Specifically, it is about so-called residual funds, which the Free State is allowed to collect again if they have not been spent after a certain period of time.
Universities and colleges consider this to be dangerous because some professorships are advertised for several years – and are not funded all at once, but rather over a longer period of time. Since the universities have committed themselves to providing resources to the newly appointed when they promise appointments for professorships, usually with a term of 5 years, a failure to make these promises would be “fatal for the universities’ planning security” and “the Free State’s reputation as a science location.” it in the letter to the ministry.
The high-tech agenda includes, among other things, 100 new chairs in artificial intelligence (AI) and 1,000 new professorships at research centers and faculties. The Free State is investing a total of 5.5 billion euros for this.