The funds had been approved, contracts signed, some researchers had moved house with their kith and kin, things were supposed to start on July 1st, but the money didn't come.

The Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which is contributing a total of seven hundred thousand euros to the project on the social consequences of the pandemic, remained silent.

For weeks, the HU psychologist Jule Specht, one of the project leaders, tried to find out when and if the money would come.

She finally found out from the project sponsor that the ministry had suspended payments for the time being.

Why?

Not specified.

How it goes on?

Not clear.

Thomas Thiel

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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Apparently, many scientists are currently in the same situation as Jule Specht.

Promised funds are withheld by the ministry or promised extensions are canceled.

Last week, after a long silence, the ministry commented on this for the first time when asked.

It justifies the cuts with the tense budgetary situation as a result of the Russian war of aggression and the debt brake, which will take effect again from 2023, but speaks of individual cases.

In addition to the Corona project, the funding line "Innovative Women in Focus", the funding guideline "Cultural Diversity and Cultural Heritage", research on the consequences of climate change, right-wing extremism and racism are affected.

These are exclusively follow-up projects, not ongoing projects.

These would be financed to the end without cutbacks.

The ministry promises to honor written funding commitments.

Apparently, the funds already approved and now withdrawn are verbal commitments.

It is astonishing that, given the sums in question, the scientists apparently had to rely on revisable verbal promises for months.

In the case of the Corona project, the ministry claims that the delay was communicated to the project leaders as soon as possible.

This is in clear contradiction to the representations of the scientists.

In another case, the German researchers said they only found out from their African cooperation partners that ministerial funding was being suspended.

Scientists also doubt that the ministry is telling the whole truth with the deletions mentioned.

It has also frozen its funding share of the National Research Data Infrastructure to this year's level, according to researchers involved.

The consortia of the third rounds could therefore not start.

Speculations about the reasons for the funding stop

The ministry's information policy is causing a great deal of irritation in science.

There is talk of a massive loss of trust and even cynicism.

It is met with incomprehension that Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has not yet commented on the subject.

One is particularly irritated that the decision of the project sponsors is justified, among other things, with "new priorities towards research activities that generate a quick impact", as quoted in one of several open letters that the ministry has not yet answered.

The ministry is thus fueling speculation that the impending budget cuts are not the only reason for the funding freeze.