Ten Years of ZEW - Success Thanks to an International Outlook and Practical Relevance

Ten years of ZEW – a success story written by the staff and researchers at ZEW. This is the conclusion drawn by the Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, Erwin Teufel, in view of the research completed by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW); an opinion he was able to voice at the gala held to celebrate the tenth anniversary of ZEW. Teufel is particularly impressed by the fact that ZEW has managed, in a relatively short period of time, to achieve a unique position amongst leading research institutes on both a national and international scale. The Minister President accorded particular recognition to those responsible for the direction of ZEW. Through their particular engagement, the founding directors of ZEW, Dr Heinz König (Scientific Director) and Ernst-O. Schulze (Director of Business and Administration), as well as ZEW President, Dr Wolfgang Franz, who took on his position from König in 1997, have made a considerable contribution to the development of the institute and its current size and significance.

ZEW has rather impressively put its founding concept, developed in 1989/90, into practice: delivering high quality scientific research, whilst maintaining its international and interdisciplinary stance, and promoting practice relevance. A further, particular strength of ZEW is its application in new research fields which are of particular relevance for the future. This is all the more important in a highly technological region such as Baden-Württemberg. Research into new information and communication technologies, an area in which ZEW hopes to carry out more work in the future, is considered to be an ideal addition and compliment to the Institute's profile. Erwin is therefore keen to support ZEW in its fulfilment of these ambitions.

In a short review, the Chairman of the ZEW supervisory board, Dr Manfred Timmermann, who already held a seat in the expert commission for the founding of ZEW in 1990, provided insight into the various stages in ZEW's development thus far. Since its establishment, the Institute has received third party funding in the region of DM 47 million, almost 8 million of which was received last year. The institute currently has a budget of around DM 20 million and already employs a staff of 115. Timmermann particularly emphasised that ZEW passed its inspection by the Scientific Council in December 1998 with flying colours – a process which, from a scientific perspective at least, constitutes quite a challenge. "ZEW was therefore able to further build on its already excellent reputation."

The gala organised to mark the tenth anniversary of the founding of ZEW illustrated not only that the name, ZEW, has now acquired national and international recognition, but also that the research institute has been successfully integrated into the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region. In recognition of this, the Minister President Teufel was able to hand over the prize, sponsored by Engelhorn and the "Mannheimer Morgen", for the promotion of Mannheim's reputation in Germany and abroad as a metropole for culture and economics to ZEW.

Contact

Gunter Grittmann, Phone: +49(0)621/1235-132, E-mail: grittmann@zew.de