Experts doubt that the “Zeilinger effect” will last

Almost 50 years after Konrad Lorenz, the time had come last year: Anton Zeilinger received the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. Experts classify a possible “Zeilinger effect” in different ways – from a real “high” to the fear of “Sunday speeches” without lasting effect Opinions range in effect. “Solely through the media attention, science and research have moved further into the center of public consciousness thanks to the Nobel Prize awarded to Anton Zeilinger,” explained Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP). His experience is that the quantum physicist’s research is always discussed during school visits. In the broader public, science “has once again experienced the high that it deserves thanks to the Nobel Prize,” said the minister, who points to the ongoing implementation of a “departmental strategy to strengthen trust in science and research.” The award and the subsequent media attention proved to be helpful here.

Small talk topic, but little tailwind

Polaschek’s predecessor in the ministerial chair, Heinz Faßmann, has a mixed assessment of the effect: “Austria is no longer just proud of its mountains and its skiers, but also of ‘its’ Nobel Prize winner in physics, Anton Zeilinger,” said the current President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW ). Quantum physics has become a small talk topic. However, when it comes to the current budget negotiations for non-university research institutions, there is little tailwind. “The Sunday speeches will be forgotten again on Monday and stinginess is the dominant characteristic of financial negotiators. But perhaps I see this too pessimistically and the finance minister will set the course for further research at Nobel Prize level in October – I’m not giving up hope,” said Faßmann . Without appropriate budgets, there would be “no funding for ‘crazy ideas’ that became groundbreaking research projects and very probably no Nobel Prize winner Anton Zeilinger either.”

Disinterest in science is widespread in this country

For science researcher Helga Nowotny, the award “confirmed what the scientific community has known for a long time, namely that quantum physics in Vienna and Innsbruck is world class.” The broader population “acknowledged the Nobel Prize with more or less pride, but otherwise not much has changed.” The fact that disinterest in science is widespread in this country is shown again and again. It is questionable whether Zeilinger, “who is an excellent communicator,” can achieve a lasting positive effect on his own.

“Science itself must communicate more and better how it works”

Rather, science is like sport, “it must generate broad impact, fascination, interest, access to a different world than the one we experience in everyday life. In addition, as in sport, young talent must be specifically promoted.” Here, relevant programs with political and university support must run successfully “and the media and schools should play along,” said the former President of the European Research Council (ERC): “Science itself must communicate more and better how it works, i.e. the process the focus of scientific work and not just the result and the finished product.”

Desire for “bold investments”

The rector of the University of Vienna, Sebastian Schütze, attests that science will receive “more attention and visibility” after Zeilinger’s award. But what this will do in the longer term will not become apparent “so immediately and, above all, not so quickly,” said Schütze, who sees “general trust in science further strengthened by the Nobel Prize.” In order to advance the research location, however, “politicians need to make bold investments in cutting-edge research in the upcoming performance agreements 2025-2027 (for universities; note).

For the head of the FWF Science Fund, Christof Gattringer, the prize “may have a strengthening effect on everyone who is already convinced of the achievements and advantages of scientific progress. I cannot say whether there will be a change of opinion among people who are fundamentally skeptical of science judge”. The physicist still sees Austria as having “moved a little bit further from being a cultural and sports nation towards a scientific nation.” It remains to be seen whether this will be reflected in research funding by the public sector: “The real politics in research funding are often rather sobering compared to the hymns of praise on the occasion of great scientific successes.”