ZEW Bids Farewell to Distinguished Members of the Scientific Advisory Council

The Board of Directors at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), ZEW President Professor Achim Wambach, PhD, and the institute's Director of Business and Administration Thomas Kohl gave an official send-off to six long-serving members of the scientific advisory council prior to an evening lecture event at ZEW. Former ZEW President Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Wolfgang Franz gave a speech lauding the outstanding service of the six advisers with whom he had worked closely for many years.

"These long-serving members of the scientific advisory council carried out their work with great skill and dedication," stressed Wolfgang Franz, "and that was all on a voluntary basis, I might add." Praise was firstly directed toward Professor Dr. Friedrich Buttler, State Secretary retd. at the Brandenburg Ministry of Science, Research and Culture and former chair of the scientific advisory council, as well as Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Arnold Picot, head of the Institute of Information, Organization and Management at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and vice-chair of the scientific advisory council.

Also given an honourable send-off were Prof. Dr. Michael Heise, head of Allianz Group Economic Research at Dresdner Bank AG in Frankfurt, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Gebhard Kirchgässner at the Swiss Institute for International Economics and Applied Economic Research (SIAW) at the University of St. Gallen, Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Bertram Schefold, professor in economics, in particular economic theory, at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, and Dr.-Ing. h.c. Manfred Wittenstein, chair of Wittenstein AG in Igersheim, Baden-Württemberg.

"ZEW is greatly indebted to them"

Prof. Dr. Dieter Hundt, former president of the Confederation of German Employers' Associations (BDA), had already stepped down from the scientific advisory council back in spring 2016. Prof. Dr. Hannes Rehm, former chair of Nord/LB and spokesperson for SoFFin (Special Financial Market Stabilization Funds), also left the committee in May 2016.

As an advisory committee, the scientific advisory council is actively involved in drawing up ZEW's research programme and strategy plan. In addition, the council reviews and approves all ZEW projects with basic funding. As he bid farewell to the departing committee members who he had worked alongside for many years at ZEW, Wolfgang Franz mentioned "activities dedicatedly performed by the council" for which "ZEW is greatly indebted to them".

In particular, Wolfgang Franz used his speech to honour "the council's inexhaustible support" in reference to the ZEW's evaluation from the Leibniz Association every seven years. "About a year before every evaluation, ZEW's scientific advisory council would carry out a 'mock evaluation' with my instruction to be a brutal as possible," Franz explained. According to Franz, it was not least thanks to these test runs "that ZEW passed the subsequent Leibniz Association evaluations with flying colours".