In the recent past, the German Council of Science and Humanities expressed its views in its statements, recommendations, and position papers on various topics, including university construction (2022), the transformation of scientific publishing to
Open Access (2022), and
science communication (2021). In 2020, it published the position paper "Impulses from the
COVID-19 Crisis for the Further Development of the Science System in Germany," which described ten challenges for research to be crisis-proof. In 2019, it called for more funds for
peace and conflict studies. In the same year (2019), it issued a statement on the further development of university medicine in
North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2016, the Council produced a position paper on knowledge and technology transfer. In 2015, in a position paper titled "Major Societal Challenges" internationally referred to as societal challenges or grand challenges, it called for the "integration and flexible recombination of knowledge on ecological, technological, social, cultural, and economic aspects of a transformation process." ==Presidents==