Germany's top basic research organizations are bemoaning a "disappointing" science budget for 2001. Research leaders said this week that planned increases won't be enough to sustain some innovative programs--or keep pace with other leading nations.
At the Max Planck Society, the nation's premier basic research agency, spending will rise 3% next year, to about $800 million, says president Hubert Markl. That's well short of the requested 5.2% budget hike, so the society may scale back new "international research schools" and other efforts to promote interdisciplinary partnerships, he says.
Markl and Ernst Ludwig Winnacker, head of the DFG basic-research granting agency--which will also get a 3% increase to about $1 billion--warn that Germany is falling behind the United States. To keep pace, both men vowed to push for more "substantial" raises in the 2002 budget. Markl is aiming for at least 5% more, while Winnacker hopes for as much as a 10% boost.
