REGIONS NATURE|Vol 450|15 November 2007
Allowing an élite
O
ctober brought a rich harvest for science in
Dropping the
Germany. Two Nobel prizes went there, to
physicist Peter Grünberg and chemist
dogma that all are
Gerhard Ertl. Champagne corks were also
equal is letting
popping in the universities of Aachen, Freiburg,
Heidelberg, Göttingen and Konstanz, and the Free
Germany’s centres
University of Berlin, after they won the second round of excellence
of the ‘excellence initiative’, a federal competition that
flourish. Quirin
has radically changed Germany’s academic landscape.
Present and future scientists stand to gain.
Schiermeier meets
The €1.9-billion (US$2.7-billion) competition,
the new leaders.
launched in 2005 by then science minister Edelgard
Bulmahn, marks a move away from the doctrine that
all German universities have similar strengths —
upheld since the student revolts of the 1960s. The
initiative, say researchers and administrators, implicitly
recognizes that some universities may have more to
offer than others, especially in certain fields. Now the
chosen few must prove that the quality of their research
matches that of their award-winning proposals.
The two rounds of the excellence initiative will create
at least 3,000 new jobs in science at all levels of
experience, according to the DFG, Germany’s main
funding agency for university research — which
received a 20% budget increase to fund the initiative.
Given that several thousand academics employed in
the 1970s will soon reach retirement age, this means
that up to 10,000 positions in science will probably be (LMU) in Munich, and the Technical Universities of
available by the end of the decade. Munich and Karlsruhe — are using the award to
RBIS
O
C
But the competition has created more winners than expand on their strengths, from the life sciences and
A/
just the nine universities, which can now call nanotechnology to the humanities.
ZEF
themselves ‘élite’. Numerous new graduate schools and “There’s great excitement here,” says Patrick Cramer,
large-scale research collaborations — known as director of the LMU’s Gene Centre. Traditionally, even
‘excellence clusters’ — have been created, from Kiel in researchers who successfully attracted grant money
the north all the way to Konstanz in the south. and published got little recognition from their home
H. SPICHTINGER/
university, he notes. “Formerly you would sweat and
Sea change slave without ever being rewarded much for your
Marine science, for example, has become a strategic efforts. Now we see that developing good ideas and
priority at the University of Kiel, on Germany’s Baltic doing hard work does make a difference.”
coast — and is now clearly recognizable as the field in Cramer is an executive board member of the centre
which Kiel has more to offer than other German for integrated protein science, one of the LMU’s three
universities with different strengths. “In the old days of excellence clusters, each of which receives €32.5
egalitarianism nobody would have dared to say this so million plus overheads for five years. He has set up a
clearly,” says Martin Visbeck, an oceanographer at Kiel. new group for computational biology and is recruiting
He coordinates an excellence cluster on the ‘future an independent group leader for a second group that
ocean’, one of 17 such clusters chosen last year for will start work in January. Thanks to the extra money,
funding. Physical and marine oceanographers he can offer excellent conditions, such as a €1.2-million
cooperate with climate modellers and economists to starting grant and freedom from teaching obligations.
TION
A
study the impact of climate change on the oceans, and Plans to expand the Gene Centre further to become an UND
O
to evaluate the consequences for fisheries, coastal institute for systems biology are looking good, he says.
protection and human health. “We have finally abandoned egalitarianism in favour
There was, of course, some disappointment. Several of a more differentiated university system,” says
universities in Berlin and eastern Germany failed to economist Bernd Huber, president of the LMU. “This
PHILIP MORRIS F
make the cut. But the initiative has created a palpable makes us much more attractive for foreign scientists.
spirit of optimism among most of Germany’s academic But clearly it does also matter a lot more now where in
community. It has been prone to despondency in the Germany you work as a researcher or a professor.”
past, with academics and politicians unsure about the Researchers and policy-makers must be careful to
country’s science standing (see Nature 447, 630–633; ensure that the new system does not lead to funding
2007). No German university, for example, has a top monopolies, warns Matthias König, a sociologist at the
ranking internationally — something the excellence Martin Visbeck (top) and University of Göttingen and spokesman for the Junge
initiative is meant to help change. Patrick Cramer: excellence Akademie, which promotes the interests of young
Last year’s winners — Ludwig Maximilian University is now being recognized. German scientists and scholars.
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