Former University President Fulda: DFG imposes sharp reprimand!

Former University President Fulda: DFG imposes sharp reprimand!

The news is causing a stir in the academic world: The German Research Foundation (DFG) has issued a written reprimand against the former president of the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel, Simone Fulda. This became known on July 4, 2025 and has far-reaching consequences. Fulda was not only excluded from being eligible to apply for DFG funding for a year, but serious errors were also found in her scientific publications. Eight of eleven articles examined in which Fulda was involved between 2001 and 2019 are considered to be “objectively flawed” because, among other things, images were duplicated or changed without permission, such as NDR reported.

The DFG found “gross negligence” in five of these cases, including four cases in which Fulda was a co-author of publications that were classified as falsified. With these allegations, data manipulation in research work has been reported since February 2024, which ultimately led to Fulda's resignation as president. She had argued that important primary data was no longer available after a ten-year retention period and that the errors were unintentional. However, the DFG deemed these explanations to be insufficient and rejected them. The main committee of the DFG emphasized that the errors were recognizable even without the primary data, which underlines the seriousness of the allegations jmwiarda.de supplemented.

Academic consequences and ongoing proceedings

In addition to the consequences that Fulda has already experienced, proceedings were also previously initiated against her at the universities of Frankfurt and Ulm, which were discontinued in 2025. While the University of Ulm found a violation of the rules of good scientific practice, it was unable to prove gross negligence. There are currently two further proceedings against Fulda, which increases the uncertainty about her academic future.

The Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Science described the DFG’s decision as “transparently understandable”. This topic once again sheds light on the discussion about scientific integrity. Especially since the DFG implemented the code for ensuring good scientific practice in 2019 and recently launched the “Scientific Integrity” portal, the pressure on researchers to adhere to these standards has increased, as in another report by dfg.de is explained.

The allegations against Simone Fulda highlight the challenges within the scientific community and the great responsibility to present research results with integrity and accuracy. Her career has changed significantly: After retiring from the university, she accepted a professorship at the medical faculty of the University of Kiel, where the developments will certainly represent an exciting but also challenging time for her.