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In an effort to promote "brain gain" in Germany, the Helmholtz Association of National Research Centers has enlarged a program designed to attract young German and non-German scientists with international experience.
Bärbel Köster, spokeswoman for the Bonn-based Helmholtz Association, told The Scientist that a smaller-scale version of the Helmholtz Young Investigators program, launched late last year, proved so successful that the association has decided to increase funding.
Helmholtz last month announced a call for applications from young scientists interested in leading one of 20 "Young Investigator Groups." Each group would be affiliated with one of the Helmholtz Association's 15 member centers, which include the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, the German Research Center for Biotechnology in Braunschweig, and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg.
Köster said that each of the 20 groups would be funded for 5 years. In each successive year, 20 new groups will be formed. When the program is running at full speed on a permanent basis in 5 years, a total of 100 groups will always be in operation, she said.
Helmholtz is targeting scientists no older than 36 years of age who earned doctorates in the previous 2 to 6 years, Köster said. Applicants must have done research abroad for at least 6 months at either a doctorate or postdoctorate level. Group leaders who fulfill contractual evaluation requirements are guaranteed permanent positions at the end of the 5-year program.
In order to catch the attention of applicants outside of Germany, Helmoltz is advertising in Nature this week and Science next week magazines, Köster said.
"We want people with international experience because you get a different perspective, a different experience if you go aboard," Köster said, adding that young scientists would help provide Germany with "fresh and new ideas." The initiative is only one of many national and international efforts Europe has started recently to entice researchers.
The desire to recruit non-Germans resulted is a major addition to last year's pilot program, Helmholtz–University Young Investigators, which required group leaders to divide time between a Helmholtz Center and a German university, Köster said.
The enlarged program has added a second type of group, Helmholtz Young Investigators (without the word "university"), which will work only at Helmholtz centers, she said. Helmholtz centers—in theory—operate in the English language, unlike universities.
"We want to get people [non-Germans] from abroad and we want to get Germans home from abroad," Köster said.
When asked whether a goal of the program was to combat "brain drain"—the existence of which some researchers question—Köster said: "I think of it as brain gain."
Helmholtz estimates each group will cost at least €250,000. Helmholtz will contribute €125,000 for each university-affiliated group and €80,000 for each center-only group, with remaining costs covered by participating centers and universities.
Christian Pfleiderer, 38, of the University of Karlsruhe's Physics Department, was accepted as a group leader in the pilot project in affiliation with Helmholtz's Karlsruhe Research Center.
Pfleiderer, who earned an MA from Denver University and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge, described the Young Investigator program as an important step forward for Germany. "It gives young scientists the opportunity and the means to work on their ideas, to make them come alive," he said.
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