Max Planck Society's Careful Planning Reaps Benefits

briefing Within the east German research insti- “We were not treated unfairly, according tutes of the Leibniz Society, three-quarters of to western rules,” he says. “But the rules were institute directors, and over a third of depart- ost see the against us. For example, the selection process ment heads, come from west Germany. The West German was in English, whereas we could have done directors of the three new national research M better in Russian, and publication record was centres are west Germans, and 55 per cent of ‘takeover’ as having a major criterion, whereas we had had few department heads are from west Germany chances to publish in western journals.” with a further eight per cent coming from been inevitable There were also cultural differences. “We abroad. all spoke German, yet after 40 years of cultur- Even more extreme ratios exist in the 20 peared for the good of east Germany’s scien- al divide it was hard to really talk to each Max Planck institutes, with only three of the tific future, he says. At his own Institute for other,” says Horst Franz Kern, dean of sci- 240 institute directors and department Plant Biochemistry, from which he retired as ence at the University of Marburg, who heads being east Germans. In contrast to director at the end of 1997, “even those hired chaired the Wissenschaftsrat’s committee on universities and other research organiza- on temporary grant money come increas- biology and medicine at the time of the tions, 40 per cent of these top jobs are occu- ingly from west Germany”. Wende. pied by foreigners. Three of the society’s 19 Parthier, currently president of the Joint Wissenschaftsrat evaluation com- independent research groups are east Ger- Leopoldina Academy, says the restructuring mittees of east and west German scientists man; the rest are west German. However, the of the academy “involved few genuine vic- became essentially run by west Germans — MPS did not take over existing institutes, but tims of injustice”. But Jens Reich, a bioinfor- and according to west German rules — says founded new ones from scratch (see below). maticist originally from the academy’s pres- another west German member of the com- Most see the west German ‘takeover’ as tigious Central Institute for Molecular Biol- mittee, because “the east Germans were not having been inevitable. Benno Parthier, one ogy (CIMB) in east Berlin, believes the used to our open way of discussion and at the of only two Academy of Sciences research restructuring of the non-university research beginning were mostly silent”. More impor- directors who were never members of the institutes could have been much fairer. In tantly, the founding committees of the new Communist party, finds the survey results 1994 Reich was appointed head of bioinfor- institutes that made the final recruitment “unsurprising”. “You have to accept that matics at the Max Delbrück Centre for Mole- decisions were heavily dominated by west there will be a lost generation,” which disap- cular Medicine, which took over the CIMB. Germans, says Kern. Max Planck Society’s careful planning reaps benefits Munich into faculty, in contrast Research in Rostock are foreigners, and Shortly after the Wende, as Germans call the to the government- better able to lead discussions which we fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the sponsored WIP can’t avoid anyway,” says Markl. Max Planck Society (MPS) made itself programme, which The proportion of foreign research unpopular by refusing to join other research had the same aim, but directors in MPS institutes in east Germany organizations in their rush to rescue good was less successful (see — 40 per cent of the total — is twice as high scientists by taking over their research page 635). as in the west. This was a deliberate move, institutes. In parallel, the society says Markl, “to signal that we do not The society wanted to stick to its planned more represent the colonizing power of Wessies principle — the so-called Harnack principle thoughtfully the [west Germans], but an opening up of the — that institutes should be created in directions of 20 new scientific future in Germany as a whole”. scientific areas that balance its overall Markl: new institutes institutes. “We chose The MPS also took pains to consider new portfolio, and that each institute should be and fresh research. themes that extended approaches to research, putting together built around the research of prominent our research areas — groups from different scientific areas in the scientists recruited from around the world. for example, for the first time we set up an same institute to promote interdisciplinary At the time the society ran about 60 engineering institute — and took the working. The Max Planck Institute for institutes in west Germany. opportunity to create institutes in Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig has The society mitigated some of the particularly exciting new areas of research,” departments for developmental and criticisms it received by creating, at a total says Hubert Markl, MPS president. comparative cost of DM200 million, 27 temporary “But in a few cases we continued some of psychology, research groups within universities, each the very good research of the DDR, for evolutionary genetics, headed by an east German scientist. The example the microstructure-physics work in linguistics and universities hosting the groups agreed to Halle, in innovative directions.” primatology, for take over the support of each professor and The MPS ventured into areas of research example. at least part of his or her research group — such as cognition and evolutionary “It’s hard to say how after the end of the MPS’s five-year funding anthropology — that would have been far physical proximity period. unthinkable for Germans in the decades will help generate after the Second World War, with genuinely new Opening new territory sensitivities to the abuse of biology very interdisciplinary Drawing up clear contracts with the high. Demographic research was also a Pääbo: neighbours ideas,” says Svante universities made all the difference to the particularly sensitive area into which the spark new interests. Pääbo, one of the success of this programme, whose aim was MPS ventured. institute’s research to help reintegrate research into “It is perhaps helpful that the directors directors. “But already my interest in chimp universities. All the professors were taken of our new Institute for Demographic evolutionary genetics has been sparked.” ■ NATURE | VOL 401 | 14 OCTOBER 1999 | www.nature.com 637 © 1999 Macmillan Magazines Ltd.

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