Symposium on Autonomy and Flexibility in Scientific Administration

In cooperation with the Central Institute of Mental Health (ZI), ZEW hosted a symposium on “Autonomy and Flexibility in Scientific Administration – Best Practice” on 18 October 2010. The event was attended by over 85 business executives and company directors, experts and decision-makers from universities, research institutions and university hospitals as well as representatives from funding bodies, who discussed a number of issues, such as what adjustments research institutions in Germany can make in order to continue to compete in the international arena.

Chairman of the ZEW Supervisory Board Gerhard Strathaus MdL, former finance minister and member of the management committee at the German Federal Agency for Financial Market Stabilisation, welcomed participants to the symposium and provided an introduction to the topic at hand. Using their respective institutions as examples, Susanne Boomkam-Dahmen, executive director of the German Institute for International Educational Research (DIPF), Katrin Erk, director of business and administration at ZI, and executive director of ZEW Thomas Kohl all presented the general framework of scientific administration.

Robert Fischer from the Finance Ministry of Baden-Württemberg discussed the budgeting conditions of research institutions from the perspective of national budgetary law. General Secretary of the German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech) Dr. Michael Klein described the increasing flexibility in scientific administration as an innovation in need of further development. The conditions for competition in the international research arena was the subject of a lecture from Professor Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, CEO of ZI. Dr. Rolf Greve, head of the university governing body at the Authority for Science and Research in Hamburg, discussed regulation and increased flexibility in scientific administration. The joint ZI and ZEW event concluded with a lively panel discussion between Katrin Erk (ZI), Robert Fischer (Baden-Württemberg Finance Ministry), Dr. Michael Klein (acatech), Thomas Kohl (ZEW) and general secretary of the Leibniz Association Christiane Neumann.

Stephan Reichert, reichert@zew.de