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Das Forschungsdatengesetz: Für exzellente Forschung, effektivere Governance und evidenzbasierte Politik
Full text linkBei politischen Entscheidungen können wissenschaftsbasierte Empfehlungen eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler stellen empirisch begründete Aussagen zu kontrovers diskutierten Fragestellungen bereit. Dafür müssen sie bisher oftmals auf Datensätze aus dem Ausland zurückgreifen, da die Verknüpfbarkeit qualitativ hochwertiger Daten aus Deutschland starken Einschränkungen unterliegt. Mit dem geplanten Forschungsdatengesetz (FDG) könnte für die gemeinwohlorientierte Forschung der Zugang zu verknüpften Daten deutlich verbessert werden. Ein Policy Brief in der Reihe „Leopoldina Fokus“ erläutert, welchen Nutzen ein passgenau ausgestaltetes Forschungsdatengesetz für die Wissenschaft, mittelbar aber auch für Politik und Gesellschaft haben kann
Wissenschaft und Vermittlung von Kulturerbe. Wissen und öffentliches Bewusstsein über unsere gemeinsamen Wurzeln: [Arbeitsübersetzung]
Full text linkCOVID-19 pandemic up close: Inquiring into personal experiences of global young researchers
Full text linkGlobal Health Approach for Infectious Diseases – A Proposal for the Next Decade: Conference Brief
Full text linkThe recent COVID-19 pandemic served as a stark reminder of the profound and far-reaching consequences that emerging diseases can impose on healthcare systems, economies, and social fabric. The COVID-19 pandemic further elevated the importance of scientific collaboration, innovation, and transdisciplinary approaches to mitigate the effects of infectious diseases. The conference brief “Global Health Approach for Infectious Diseases – A Proposal for the Next Decade” elucidates a blueprint for a global health approach. The conference brief strongly advocates for the advancement of global health research, exemplified by greater societal collaboration in data collection and sharing, as well as equitable access to vaccines. The authors of the conference brief emphasise the importance of cooperation to achieve the common goal of building a resilient and sustainable future for global health. The urgent need for collaborative efforts and evidence-based policies to address the challenges of current and future infectious disease threats, is highlighted. The publication is the result of an African-German workshop convened in May 2023. The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), the Académie Nationale des Sciences et Techniques du Sénégal (ANSTS), and the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS) jointly hosted the workshop on "Infectious Diseases beyond COVID-19" at the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, Germany
Global State of Young Scientists (GloSYS) in Africa: Main Research Report
Full text linkYoung scientists and scholars from all fields of research have been widely acknowledged as particularly relevant to the creation and diffusion of knowledge, both for research and for teaching the next generation of highly qualified human resources. Given the demographic development and the growing demand for advanced higher education training in Africa, African countries depend on the successful development of highly trained academic staff to deliver these needs. Shortages in academic and research staff directly translate to barriers to the expansion of higher education institutions (HEIs) and a loss of quality of education, and therefore impede the transformation of African countries to knowledge economies with sustainable labour markets and research and innovation systems that can deliver on the needs of societies in Africa, including confronting health and environmental challenges. Yet, young scientists and scholars – or early career researchers (ECRs) – in Africa are facing persistent challenges and barriers, often causing them to abandon their research careers or leave their countries to pursue their careers abroad. Even those wishing to return to their home countries often face insufficient infrastructure and regulations, or organisational cultures that make them consider leaving again. Monitoring of ECRs and research on their formation and career development has gained much attention in recent years in many economically strong countries with mature higher education systems – particularly in Europe and North America – with results from the analyses feeding into dedicated programmes for their development. Taking note of the lack or insufficiency of knowledge in other regions of the world, in Africa, Asia and Latin America in particular, the GYA has made it a strategic aim to improve our knowledge on ECRs in these regions, to provide evidence-based recommendations, and to include these regions in ongoing scholarly discussions on changes to the higher education and science systems. The Global State of Young Scientists (GloSYS) projects are strategic flagship projects of the GYA that aim to connect with local researchers, National Young Academies and other regional and international stakeholders to deliver excellent research and evidence-based policy recommendations that connect to international trends, while at the same time paying attention to current regional needs and the history of the science and education systems in the respective countries under examination
Die justizielle Ahndung von NS-Verbrechen in Ost- und Westdeutschland seit 1945: ein Überblick
Full text linkDer Artikel vergleicht die west- und ostdeutsche Nachkriegsjustiz in Bezug auf die Ahndung von NS-Verbrechen. Während die Prozesse der Alliierten, insbesondere das Internationale Militärtribunal in Nürnberg, bekannt sind, sind Kenntnisse über die deutschen Bemühungen der unmittelbaren Nachkriegsjahre selbst in der Geschichtswissenschaft nicht weit verbreitet. Doch sowohl Ost- als auch Westdeutschland bauten ihre Justizverwaltungen wieder auf und stellten ab 1945 NS-Verbrecher vor Gericht. Die Entnazifizierung des Justizpersonals warf große Probleme auf, da sie den Wiederaufbau der Justiz mangels unbelasteter Richter und Staatsanwälte faktisch unterminierte. Ost- und Westdeutschland wählten unterschiedliche Wege, indem sie entweder auf der Säuberung bestanden und sich mit Laienrichtern begnügten oder auf die Entnazifizierung verzichteten. Die deutschen Gerichte wandten zunächst das (von NS-Verordnungen bereinigte) deutsche Strafrecht sowie das Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 10 an, das aber in der amerikanischen Besatzungszone nicht und in Westdeutschland nur bis 1951 verwendet wurde. Ein genauer Blick auf die verfolgten NS-Straftaten zeigt deutliche Unterschiede zwischen Ost und West: In Ostdeutschland standen Denunziationen und Straftaten gegen Fremdarbeiter im Vordergrund der Ahndung, während in Westdeutschland das Pogrom von 1938, später Straftaten in Konzentrationslagern oder Massenvernichtungen verhandelt wurden. Die Wahrscheinlichkeit, verurteilt zu werden, war in Ostdeutschland deutlich höher, aber im Großen und Ganzen waren die Haftstrafen sowohl in Ost als auch in West mild, mit nur wenigen Ausnahmen von lebenslangen Haftstrafen.The article compares West and East German postwar judicial dealings concerning Nazi Crimes. While the Allied trials, especially the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, are well known, even historians are not aware of the German efforts of the immediate postwar years. Yet, both East and West Germany rebuilt their administration of justice and tried Nazi criminals from 1945 onwards. Denazification of judicial personnel posed great problems, as it effectively subverted rebuilding the judicial system due to the lack of unencumbered judges and state attorneys. East and West Germany opted for different ways, by either insisting on the purge and settling for lay judges or sacrificing denazification. German courts started by applying penal law (purged of Nazi ordinances) and (apart from the American Zone of Occupation) also Control Council Law No. 10, in West Germany until 1951 only. A close look at the Nazi criminal acts prosecuted shows marked differences between East and West: in East Germany, denunciations and felonies against foreign workers were high on the agenda, while in West Germany, the pogrom of 1938, later criminal offences in concentration camps or mass extermination were adjudicated. The likelihood to be sentenced was markedly higher in East Germany, but on the whole, prison sentences were lenient in both East and West with only few exceptions of lifelong imprisonment
Taxonomien der Schuld: Zur historischen Bedeutung (straf-)rechtlicher und quasi-rechtlicher Kategorien im Umgang mit NS-‚Belastungen‘ in wissenschaftlichen Kontexten, 1935 –1950
Full text linkIn dem Maße, in dem die Geschichtswissenschaft die Dimensionen und Facetten des Verhältnisses von Wissenschaft und Nationalsozialismus in den letzten drei Jahrzehnten genauer ausgeleuchtet hat, vertiefte und schärfte sich zuletzt auch das Verständnis über die multivalenten Bedeutungsgehalte von ‚Belastungen‘ in wissenschaftlichen Zusammenhängen. Eine Gemeinsamkeit vieler jüngerer Arbeiten zum Thema ist, dass sie dazu neigen, die Problematik überwiegend aus einer (west-) deutschen Perspektive und von ihrem Ende her zu betrachten. Erkennbar ist zudem die Tendenz, einige der zeitgenössisch verbreiteten Missverständnisse über die Hintergründe der alliierten Konfrontationspolitik, insbesondere auch deren Bezugnahme auf die Menschenrechte und das Völkerstrafrecht, zu reproduzieren. Unberücksichtigt bleibt dabei, dass die Entwicklungen als größerer Prozess verstanden werden müssen, der durch transnationale Wechselwirkungen, Verflechtungen und Interaktionen gekennzeichnet war. Auch wenn sich die menschenrechtliche Konjunktur gegen Ende der 1940er Jahre spürbar abschwächte, hinterließen die diskursiven und performativen Strategien der Verrechtlichung und Verwissenschaftlichung, die von den Westalliierten bereits in der letzten Kriegsphase angestoßen worden waren, auch über die Zeit von 1945 hinaus Spuren. Aus diesem Grund sollte sich die Zeitgeschichte stärker als bisher damit auseinandersetzen, dass die enge Verzahnung (quasi-)rechtlicher, historisch-politischer und ethisch-moralischer Kategorien ein wesentliches Merkmal wissenschaftlicher Selbstverständigungsdiskurse im Zeitalter der „Cold War Science“ blieb.To the extent that in the last three decades, historical scholarship has illuminated the dimensions and facets of the relationship between science and National Socialism, the understanding of the multivalent meanings of the concept of Belastung in scientific contexts has become more profound and precise. A common feature of many recent works on the topic is that they tend to view the problem predominantly from a (West) German perspective and from its end. There is also a recognizable tendency to reproduce some of the contemporaneous misunderstandings about the background of Allied confrontation policy, especially its reference to human rights and international criminal law. What remains unconsidered, however, is that the historical developments must be understood as a larger process that was characterized by transnational interactions, entanglements, and interactions. Even if the so-called human rights revolution did noticeably peter out toward the end of the 1940s, the discursive and performative strategies of juridification and scientification, already initiated by the Western Allies in the last phase of the war, left their mark even beyond 1945. Against this backdrop, contemporary history should pay more attention to the fact that the close interlocking of (quasi-)legal, historical-political, and ethical-moral categories remained an essential feature of scientific discourses of self-understanding in the age of “Cold War Science.
Perspectives of Cell-based Immune Therapy in Organ Transplantation
Full text linkTherapeutically applying cell-based medicinal products (CBMPs) offers a state-of-the-art approach to reducing general immunosuppression in organ transplant recipients. Accordingly, an EU funded project called “The ONE Study” tested multiple regulatory CBMPs in a parallel series of kidney transplant (KTx) trials. The primary analyses of these trials have recently been reported with regard to safety and potential immunological effects in combination with reduced immunosuppressive treatment. In total, seven investigator-led single-armed trials were conducted internationally (Europe and the USA) in living-donor kidney transplant recipients, including a 60-week follow-up. One single-arm trial, the Reference Group Trial (RGT, n=66), represents a comparator “standard-of-care” group given basiliximab, tapered steroids, mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) and tacrolimus. Data from the six non-randomized phase I/IIa cell therapy group (CTG) trials were pooled and analyzed together; patients (n=38 total) in each trial received one of six CBMPs containing regulatory T cells, dendritic cells or macrophages. Patient selection and immunosuppression mirrored the RGT, except basiliximab induction was substituted with CBMPs, and mmF tapering was permitted after 9 months. Biopsy-confirmed acute rejection (BCAR) was the primary endpoint, and adverse events (AE) were documented centrally. The results of the combined data show that standard-of-care immunosuppression in the comparator RGT recipients resulted in a 12.1 % BCAR rate. The six CBMPs for the parallel CTG trials were administered to a combined total of 38 patients, with an overall BCAR rate of 15.8 %. 15 CBMP-treated patients (39.5 %) were successfully weaned off mmF and continued to receive tacrolimus monotherapy. Patients receiving CBMP therapy showed fewer AEs, and most strikingly, fewer episodes of infections occurred in the CTG trials than in the RGT trials. No safety concerns were identified in the six CTG trials. From The ONE Study, we conclude that regulatory cell therapy in living-donor kidney transplant recipients is achievable and safe (comparable rejection rates) and is associated with fewer infectious complications. Patients on CBMP therapy can be weaned to tacrolimus monotherapy. New CBMP trials are underway and will be discussed
Immune Reactions after Corneal Transplantation: What Can Transplantation Medicine Learn from the Eye?
Full text linkCorneal transplantation is the oldest and most successful form of tissue transplantation. This is in part due to corneal avascularity and corneal immune privilege. In the past decade, novel lamellar corneal transplantation (keratoplasty) techniques such as Deep Anterior Lamellar Keratoplasty (DALK) for anterior keratoplasty and Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) / Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) for posterior keratoplasty have been developed. DALK eliminates the possibility of endothelial allograft rejection, which is the main reason for graft failure after penetrating keratoplasty (PK). Compared to PK, the risk of endothelial graft rejection is significantly reduced after DSAEK/DMEK. Thus, with modern lamellar techniques, the clinical problem of endothelial graft rejection seems to be nearly solved in the low-risk situation. However, not all keratoplasties can be performed in a lamellar fashion. Therefore, endothelial graft rejection in PK is still highly relevant, especially in the “high-risk” setting, where the cornea’s (lymph)angiogenic and immune privilege is lost due to severe inflammation and pathological neovascularization. For these eyes, currently available treatment options are still unsatisfactory. Here, in murine models of corneal transplantation it has been shown that pretransplant temporary regression of pathologic corneal blood and even more so lymphatic vessels can promote subsequent high-risk graft survival. First attempts to translate that into the clinic are ongoing, amongst others in a BMBF-funded multicenter randomized pilot trial. The novel concept of temporary local pretransplant lymphangioregression at the site of transplantation could also be used at other extraocular transplant sites to promote graft survival by promoting graft tolerance