Supporting researchers under threat in today’s Academia. Lessons learnt from the evaluation of the Philipp Schwartz Initiative

Abstract

The Philipp Schwartz Initiative (PSI) is a relatively new program of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (AvH) that was launched in 2016 in close cooperation with the Federal Foreign Office. PSI enables universities and other research institutions in Germany to host foreign scientists who are exiled, displaced, and threatened by war and persecution in their own countries. As Philipp Schwartz fellows they are entitled to continue their research for a period of two years. Technopolis Austria was tasked with an evaluation of the first four selection rounds of PSI. The evaluation aimed at taking stock of program implementation, collecting interim results, assessing goal attainment and to provide recommendations to further improve the program. The program aimed at developing structures within organisations hosting threatened researchers, at integrating fellows into research to increase career perspectives, as well as at raising awareness and at sharing information and facilitate networking within German Academia. To our knowledge, this was the first evaluation of a comparable initiative.