
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
friends and supporters,
In many ways 2025 will be an exciting year. Because something I read recently when a well-known non-fiction publisher announced a forthcoming book is certainly not wrong: “Elections decide the fate of democracies. We are more aware of this than ever. If the wrong people get into high office, democracies can fail.”
This, however, referred to the Reichstag elections of a century ago when Paul von Hindenburg became President of the German Reich.
1925 – that was also the year Werner Heisenberg, later to become the first President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, presented the mathematical formulation of quantum mechanics. This was followed by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle with the concept of “contingency” – a term that is ubiquitous in the humanities. It refers to the possibility that something will occur or not occur, or that it could be fundamentally different from what it is or appears to be.
History is not pre-determined. Historical constellations may reveal parallels and still be different. We need to be conscious of history, but we should be very clear that the future is open. It is up to us to do something about it.
The 2025 Year of Science is dedicated to future energies as an indispensable basis for all social action. This topic can only be addressed and communicated internationally and through cooperation between all scientific disciplines from natural science via the social sciences to the humanities. It is thus a core topic for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation with its integrated approach of bringing together top researchers from the entire world and all disciplines.
Academic freedom in the competition between systems remains the crucial basis for the outstanding, new insights we need if we are to overcome the many crises of our times. The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation explicitly campaigns for the maintenance of academic freedom and is at the same time intensively involved in the discussion about the issue of freedom of research.
In doing so, we do not shut our eyes to the fact that, in the present day, democracy is under threat worldwide. Nevertheless, Karl Popper's guiding principle still applies to the year 2025, “Optimism is a duty!” We must not let ourselves be paralysed by fearmongering. Every one of us can shape the future. Still. Absolutely.
Resilient science for a changing world
It is not for nothing that the Foundation’s new strategy is called “Resilient Science for a Changing World.” We are going to implement it rigorously in 2025. By focusing on the following four areas, we are helping to make open society more resilient:
- Science diplomacy at home and abroad
In terms of classical science diplomacy, the Humboldt Foundation stands for communicating free democratic values and for utilising individual, trust-based contacts for communication between states, especially when official channels have ceased to function. Every year, we bring 900 of the brightest minds in the world to Germany. And they bring new ideas and inspiration with them. In this way, we demonstrably reinforce Germany’s status as a research location and create a sounding board for democratic values elsewhere at the same time. We will monitor the extent to which we manage to extend and diversify our network by increasingly addressing women researchers.
At present, the rapid development of the political situation in the Middle East, where the power of science to shape society is of great importance, poses particular challenges, as do the restrictions in academic freedom we envisage in the United States; this we want to counter with the united support of our network.
- Networks generate resilience
The major issues confronting humanity require a global approach and multiple perspectives: it is not just in the fight against climate change that we are banking on the strength of our worldwide Humboldt Network. Our network’s global reach is unique; its knowledge, in the true sense of the word, boundless. It offers us the opportunity to address global problems with local expertise. This is something we want to pursue more locally, especially in the countries of the Global South, utilising it for the benefit of society there, which ultimately benefits the global community. To this end, we need policies in the sense of “diplomacy for science,” so that scientific collaborations between hosts and experts here can continue to thrive and be expanded, for example in Africa.
- Reinforcing academic freedom
According to the Academic Freedom Index, 3.6 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, live in countries where academic freedom is completely restricted. The Humboldt Foundation continues to campaign for academic freedom with all its might. We are very concerned that applications for our protection programme, the Philipp Schwartz Initiative, have doubled since 2021 and remain at a high level. But we are pleased that more than 550 PSI Fellows from 26 countries have been able to continue their work at over 130 German institutions since the programme was established. Moreover, the initiative has become a model for other protection programmes in Europe. We will also continue our efforts for academic freedom and democracy through protection programmes and special schemes for researchers from Afghanistan, Iran and Ukraine. And, on this point, too, we depend on your support.
- Extending political and social consultancy: Science in Diplomacy
Science supported by society is under obligation to make its knowledge public. Apart from established programmes to promote science communication, such as the Communication Lab (ComLab), in 2025, we want to reinforce communication between science and policy makers. Through the Humboldt Placement Scheme, we will bring together experts from science with (foreign) policy decision-makers. This will facilitate capacity building on both sides.
Finally, back to Karl Popper whose life’s work grew out of his experience of fascism: the Austrian-British philosopher was second to none in demonstrating that an open society is inextricably linked to science. Both quite rightly insist on their independence and yet they are mutually dependent, the success of each depends on the other. What characterises democracies, as it does science, is the willingness to scrutinise what has been achieved and learn from mistakes. Science knows that its knowledge is only ever provisional. It is the task of politics and society to negotiate how this knowledge is supposed to be used.
Democracy needs pluralistic media. For some time now, the Humboldt Foundation has been critically assessing a communication platform it had previously valued. As of this new year, we are taking our leave of it. I am talking about X, formerly Twitter. We no longer see our values reflected there. We are not giving up but are searching for better ways of communicating via channels like Bluesky or LinkedIn so that we can continue sharing ideas with you in the future.
So, let us all continue working together responsibly in our own respective fields for a free democratic basic order and resilient science. We will continue to bring excellent researchers from all over the world into contact with each other. This will generate up-to-date knowledge about social and political sensitivities beyond the exchange of expertise, which we will increasingly incorporate into political discourse.
With this in mind, I wish you and your nearest and dearest a very happy New Year!
Robert Schlögl
President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation