Not Only in Germany. (October 7, 2005)

    Eleven young German research scientists who are currently working in the US have drafted an open letter to the German research ministry pointing out those conditions currently prevalent in their homeland that preclude their returning and what should be done about it.

Top of the list is greater funding for research. In addition they say there should be more transparency in recruitment and young scientists should have greater access to tenure-track positions comparable to the situation in the US.

Nature reports that the letter, the utterance of the German Scholars Organisation states that "young scientists do not want to return to Germany because of the obstacles there to conducting research. 'We need reforms,' says Michael Koeris, one of the letter's authors and a biologist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge."

An additional 350 scientists, almost all Germans working in the US, have given their support including Nobelists Wolfgang Ketterle and Herbert Kroemer.

Are matters much different for Australia's young scientific Diaspora?   

In the meantime according to Science the French government's reform bill "due to be published on 5 October, earmarks an extra $US23 billion in public funds for research between 2004 and 2010. It will award young researchers in public labs an 8% pay hike in both 2006 and 2007, allow university lecturers to spend fewer hours teaching, and provide incentives for companies to hire more postdocs. The government will also create a 24-member agency to evaluate labs, research teams, and individuals so as to improve the distribution of funds. Universities and government research agencies would be offered subsidies to join forces on projects from neuroscience to nanotechnology".

However, Jacques Fossey, head of the main research union SNCS isn't that impressed and says that France needs 9000 new public scientific posts and a $6-billion-a-year jump in spending to reach the European Union goal of 3% of gross domestic product spent on research by 2010. The French government's proposals are a start in the right direction but are insufficient.

Research minister François Goulard while replying that Fossey's goals are within reach refuses to make any guarantee's and point's at the private sector as the weak link.

Science maintains that even as it stands  "the government's commitment is short-term... given that national budgets are drawn up annually and presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2007."

Interestingly, while France and Germany have suffered significant economic downturns over the course of the past decade, the Australian government has pointed with pride to its exemplary economic management and budget surpluses. That being the case, it might have seemed that the coalition government would take the opportunity to upgrade the nation's tertiary education and public research sectors to a point where they were in the very top bracket of OECD nation's while also upping the incentives for the private sector to significantly increase its input into research.

It hasn't happened and there is no indication that there will be any significant positive change. As one example the increase in business expenditure on R&D according to ABS statistics released at the end of last month increased in 2003/4 by 10%, in dollar terms, over the previous year which translates to an increase in its share of GDP from 0.87% in 2002/3 to 0.89% in 2003/4.