Germany differentiates its universities Toni Feder Citation: Phys. Today 65(8), 24 (2012); doi: 10.1063/PT.3.1673 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1673 View Table of Contents: http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/PHTOAD/v65/i8 Published by the American Institute of Physics. Additional resources for Physics Today Homepage: http://www.physicstoday.org/ Information: http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us Daily Edition: http://www.physicstoday.org/daily_edition Downloaded 21 Aug 2012 to 141.20.210.36. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us/terms issues and events pressurization typically lasts for only a agree that these risks are serious, I dis- tus, a climate economist with the Union few hours. By contrast, the injection of agree with the authors’ claim that they of Concerned Scientists. “Honestly, the large volumes of CO2 over many years will likely render CCS unsuccessful,” he challenges to CCS are so significant on will steadily build pressure in the reser- says. The quakes attributed to fluid in- the economic front that this is just going voir, according to the NRC committee jection have been at magnitudes below to be one more thing that makes people and Zoback. the damage threshold, Juanes notes. The question the risk of going down that But a breach in the sealing cap evidence presented by Zoback and path versus other options that are read- doesn’t necessarily mean that the CO2 Gorelick is anecdotal and “does not jus- ily available and much less risky, such will return to the biosphere, Litynski tify the conclusion that moderate-size as wind and solar,” she says. says. “Subsurface geology is very het- earthquakes will threaten the seal in- “The difficulty is that carbon isn’t erogeneous, and potential storage tegrity to the point of rendering CCS un- priced in a meaningful way,” adds Geo- sites typically have multiple sealing successful. In particular, [Zoback and Science’s Batchelor. “Until carbon has a units . above the primary seal, pro- Gorelick] support this sweeping state- price, it bears down on the renewables, viding additional protection against ment with a reference to some lab exper- and it bears down on CCS. And the US, fluid migration.” iments, rather than field experiments, on UK, and most European governments Ruben Juanes, associate professor of granitic rocks, which would never be are not going to put their industries at energy studies at MIT, believes that seis- used as a host rock for CCS.” a competitive disadvantage by saying micity, though an important considera- In the big picture, seismicity pales in we insist you do [CCS] and double the tion, does not represent the death knell comparison to cost as an impediment to price of power on a unilateral basis.” for geologic sequestration. “While I the adoption of CCS, says Rachel Clee- David Kramer Germany differentiates its universities Winners and losers in a bid for money and prestige say the process its bid with a research cluster of excel- has helped universities plan for the future. Many also see the height- lence—a collaboration, often across de- ened competition as good for research. partments or institutions, intended to become a leader in a particular area of he big surprise in the second and formed beginning in 2006 under the Ex- research—in marine environmental T final round of Germany’s Excel- cellence Initiative in a pioneering merger studies and a graduate school in social lence Initiative, which aims to pro- of the University of Karlsruhe, funded by sciences. And joining the ranks of excel- pel a few of the country’s universities the state of Baden- Württemberg, and a lence are two universities from the for- into the international top tier, was that federally funded research center of the mer East Germany: the Humboldt Uni- three of the big winners from the first Helmholtz Association—failed in its re- versity of Berlin and the University of round lost their “elite” status. Results newal bid. The Universities of Göttin- Technology Dresden. were released on 15 June. gen and Freiburg are also licking their German researchers like to say that Jaws dropped with the news that the wounds. In a surprise to some, the Uni- it takes a fortune and a few hundred Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)— versity of Bremen, a small campus, won years to create a university like Harvard HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN A historical machine test bed (left) is now a cafeteria at Humboldt University of Berlin, a big winner in the final round of Germany’s Excellence Initiative. The university’s physics department is at the back right, and an administrative and teaching center is at the left. Graduate students (below) display a research satellite they built at the University of Technology Dresden. The two universities are the only ones from the former East Germany to win “elite” status. KARSTEN ECKOLD, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY DRESDEN 24 August 2012 Physics Today www.physicstoday.org Downloaded 21 Aug 2012 to 141.20.210.36. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us/terms or Cambridge. With a total of €2.4 bil- peat winners—the Technical University versities use it to hire people whose lion ($3 billion) to award over the next of Munich, Ludwig- Maximilians Uni- work may not fit into any given depart- five years, the initiative has nowhere versity (LMU) in Munich, Heidelberg ment, to hire young researchers in more near the money or the time to create a University, RWTH Aachen, the Free autonomous positions than is the norm world- leading university, but as evi- University of Berlin, and the University in Germany, and to offer more money denced by the two-part first round (see of Konstanz—the total is now 11. As when recruiting or retaining faculty PHYSICS TODAY, January 2007, page 28, of press time, explanations and the members; many of the “elite” universi- and December 2007, page 30), the new amount of each award were expected ties also set up frameworks to attract money and new form of competition imminently from the German Research world-class visiting faculty. But the im- are leading to more differentiation Foundation, which oversees the clus- pacts of the Excellence Initiative go be- among the country’s universities. ters and graduate schools; a gov - yond money. ernment advisory body, the Wissen - The initiative has spurred stronger Three funding lines schaftsrat, administers the institutional collaborations between researchers at A total of 45 graduate schools and strategies. universities—winners in the competi- 43 clusters of excellence—with close to Although this year’s competition tion or not—and the national research a dozen of each in physics- related marks the end of the Excellence Initia- centers of the Max Planck Society, the fields—won funding. Those two lines tive, new winners will have a chance Fraunhofer Society, the Helmholtz As- of funding were distributed among 44, in five years to compete for renewal. sociation, and the Leibniz Association. or about half, of Germany’s universi- “It does not make sense for universi- The initiative’s graduate schools are ties. On average, clusters get €6.8 mil- ties to permanently have to think meant to be “crystallization points” for lion and graduate schools get €1.6 mil- about their structures and change replacing a traditional model of ap- lion a year. things,” says physicist and University prenticeship, and that more student- Universities with at least one cluster of Cologne president Axel Freimuth, centric environment is spreading, says and one graduate school could vie to “but we need to think about how to the German Research Foundation’s have their institutional strategies recog- sustain the improvements.” Klaus Wehrberger. The mantle of excel- nized. That is the most prestigious line lence may attract better undergraduate of funding within the initiative, and the Beyond money students, although evidence for that is awards average €12 million a year. Join- Overall, the Excellence Initiative money anecdotal. In Germany, some 85% of ing Dresden, Humboldt, and Bremen as is not that much—the institutional undergraduates study at a university newcomers to that “elite” status are the strategy awards, for example, may add near where their parents live. University of Cologne and Eberhard- a small percentage to a university’s Having returned to LMU in 2009 Karl University of Tübingen. With re- budget. But the money is flexible. Uni- after five years away, Ulrich Schollwöck, Downloaded 21 Aug 2012 to 141.20.210.36. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright; see http://www.physicstoday.org/about_us/terms issues and events a theoretical physicist, says he could see they want to go. “In terms of strategy are not in the club, so to speak.” And, “all the more clearly” the differences building within universities, [working he says, “a lot of smaller universities that the Excellence Initiative has made. on proposals for] these last two years don’t have a chance to participate” in LMU’s four clusters of excellence, two of [has] been extremely fruitful,” says the competition because they lack ac- which are in physics, created “an enor- Georg Krausch, a physicist and presi- cess “to the same large scientific com- mous burst of creativity and influx of dent of Johannes Gutenberg University munities” available in Dresden, Berlin, money,” he says. Mainz. Although Mainz lost in its bid or Munich. for an institutional strategy award, it got By extension, the differentiation Mobilizing universities a new cluster in nuclear physics. And, would eventually lead to separate teach- Universities that are successful in the he says, “the university has changed. ing and research institutions.