DFG assesses current developments and identifies future areas for action

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) has published the paper The Digital Turn in the Sciences and Humanities – Current Status and Future Directions: Perspective of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)(externer Link). It assesses key developments since the DFG’s 2020 impulse paper(externer Link) and outlines perspectives for research and research funding.

In recent years, the digital turn has developed into a process of structural transformation affecting virtually every area of research. Digital technologies are increasingly shaping research processes and methods, research infrastructures, forms of collaboration and approaches to knowledge. The widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has provided particular impetus for this development.

The paper examines key developments in digital research practice. These include research data and research software, AI, automation and digital twins, and also quantum computing. Other areas of focus include scholarly information and computing infrastructures, changing approaches to knowledge and new requirements for teaching skills and knowledge. The paper also addresses the growing importance of digital sovereignty and resilient research infrastructures.

The DFG believes that these developments also place new demands on funding and financing: digital resources and infrastructures require reliable framework conditions and long-term perspectives. In addition to publications, increasing importance is attached to research data, research software, models and digital workflows as research outputs. At the same time, new skills and sustainable career paths are needed for staff with research and technical expertise who are engaged in the development, operation and further advancement of digital resources.

The DFG identifies six key areas for action in its own activities: funding the digital foundations of research, further developing assessment criteria appropriate to research, strengthening dialogue between disciplines and research communities, contributing to the development of quality assurance standards and principles, supporting sustainable staffing structures and career paths, and representing the interests of the German research community in relation to digital sovereignty at European and international level.

Further Information 

The paper “The Digital Turn in the Sciences and Humanities – Current Status and Future Directions: Perspective of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)” is available here: https://zenodo.org/records/22302944(externer Link)

Detailed information on the digital turn in the sciences and humanities is available at www.dfg.de/digital_turn(interner Link).

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