Foreword
Reinventing ourselves
The Zukunftskolleg has arrived at a crossroads: since 22 May 2025, it has been clear that from 2027 onwards we will have to manage – for the first time in our 18-year existence – without financial support from the Excellence Strategy. For the University of Konstanz, the Zukunftskolleg plays a key role in promoting academic careers: now it is time to reinvent ourselves. We want to continue offering postdoctoral researchers at the university a unique academic environment where they can showcase their extensive research output in trailblazing projects, working independently, across disciplines, with international colleagues and in exchange with more experienced scientists.
Since the Zukunftskolleg’s foundation, independence has been central to our goals: our fellows can concentrate fully on their research projects without constraints and with minimal administrative obligations, and they decide for themselves how much they want to teach. They can focus on publishing or applying for grants, on networking or on organizing conferences. This “freedom for creativity” releases tremendous energy – and we want to ensure that this is the case in the future too. Because good science needs space to unfold.
Changing scientific structures necessitate reliable career paths and transparent conditions for employing academics on a permanent basis. Until now, however, we have not been able to offer our fellows any long-term prospects: both our 2+1-year Postdoctoral Fellowships and our 5-year Research Fellowships are temporary, and consequently each fellow’s future after their time at the Zukunftskolleg is uncertain. Nevertheless, over 60 percent of our former fellows have secured a tenured professorship – within six years of leaving the Zukunftskolleg the figure is 62 %. This percentage is impressive and underlines the Zukunftskolleg’s added value. The result comes from a recent career-tracking survey conducted by the University of Konstanz, which examined the career paths of all 334 postdoctoral researchers who completed a postdoctoral degree or were junior research group leaders or junior professors at the University of Konstanz between 2004 and 2023. The most important finding is that Zukunftskolleg fellows performed better overall than their peers at the university with a comparable contract!
For the university and the Zukunftskolleg, the question remains: How can we – without funding from the Excellence Strategy – ensure that we give postdoctoral researchers the best possible financial, ideological and organizational support on their path to a professorship? That we offer them a “home” and a “community” where they feel comfortable and are free to conduct their research? That we enable them to network with other researchers within the university and across the globe? That we relay their research results to the outside world and make them visible in the scientific landscape? That we use these measures systematically to foster better science and encourage more research output?
This is something we cannot do alone. It will only be possible if we, as the Zukunftskolleg, are assisted by the University of Konstanz, external sponsors and the State of Baden-Württemberg. Because we want to be just as successful in the future as we have been over the past 18 years. We will do all we can to make sure this happens.
Just how successful and active the Zukunftskolleg fellows were last year can be seen in this annual report. From a new science-art collaboration, a photography project on HIV and fieldwork in the Sahara to an exciting YouTube channel and a workshop on “Human / Non-Human” – the range of interdisciplinary and international research projects is enormous.
Have fun reading and clicking through the pages!
Yours,
Giovanni Galizia