13. September 2006 Helmholtz Head Office
Speech by Professor Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association at the Helmholtz Annual General Assembly 2006 on 13 September 2006 in Berlin – Wissen schafft Wirkung - Helmholtz and Industry
Welcome address by President Prof. Dr. Jürgen Mlynek at the Helmholtz Annual General Assembly on 13 September 2006 in Berlin.
Minister Schavan, Ladies and Gentlemen,
A very warm welcome to our Annual General Assembly! Many of you have come from far afield to be here today and to see old friends and colleagues and rekindle the contacts you have with the Helmholtz Association. You just have to be a little patient and sit through a few speeches and lectures before the fun begins. As the famous satirist Kurt Tucholsky said: "When someone holds a speech the others have to be quiet. That's your opportunity! Misuse it!"
I do want to take this opportunity, but I shall do my best not to misuse it. I will be done in a good 15 minutes, which I hope is time to enough to get my message across to you.
The motto of our annual conference is "Wissen schafft Wirkung!" [untranslatable wordplay: Knowledge takes effect]. Knowledge has the power to change things. But only if it is actively applied, not if it is stashed away in some ivory tower.
"Wissen schafft Wirkung" is a claim that is integral to the Helmholtz mission, which I would like to quickly remind you of here:
1.) We perform top-level research in strategic programmes to help solve the grand challenges facing society, science and industry today.
2.) We research systems of great complexity with our large-scale facilities and scientific infrastructure, in cooperation with national and international partners.
And finally 3.) We transfer knowledge and technology to secure the prosperity, health and long-term standard of living in our society.
That is our mission. Those are the aims we support and which inform our actions. And as the largest research association in, we are in the best position to tackle these challenges. Our annual report, which is fresh from the printers, bears witness to this fact.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff and colleagues of the Helmholtz Association for their excellent work and loyalty. They are the people who define the image of our Association.
Hermann von Helmholtz, our namesake, was the personification of the aims we share. Helmholtz was more than just one of the 19th century's leading natural scientists. He also contributed enormously to enabling industry to benefit from the progress of science. "Think big!" was his enduring motto. Immediately after being appointed to Berlin, Helmholtz began to build up the biggest physics institute of the Wilhelminian Empire. In 1876, just a few years later, he had achieved his goal: The institute that cost 1.5 million Reichsmarks and was popularly referred to as the "Palace of Physics" was formally inaugurated.
In building up the institute, Helmholtz managed to assemble a critical mass of brilliant minds. They were able to dedicate themselves to contemporary questions of basic research at the institute and had access to the very best tools available. "One good mind attracts another" is a universal law that Helmholtz successfully applied.
But Helmholtz was not one to rest upon his laurels. He realised that universities were not always the right place to conduct all aspects of research. He also noticed that industry was becoming increasingly dependent on precise measurements of physical quantities. He therefore planned to set up a non-university research institute for calibration and metrology. In cooperation with Werner von Siemens, who made part of his private fortune available for the venture, Helmholtz applied to the Kaiser for permission to build the Physikalisch Technische Reichsanstalt, which still exists as the PTB today. It was, if you like, a pioneering example of a private public partnership.
Helmholtz thus took the first steps in high-calibre non-university research. That is another reason why we chose him as our namesake. Today, non-university institutes have become an indispensable part of the research landscape. Just about half of all publicly funded research is conducted in these institutes, the other half in universities.
During Helmholtz's lifetime, Germany became one of the most innovative countries in Europe. The pressure from today's competition, however, is another ballgame altogether. Germany is having to fight to secure the prosperity of its citizens, a prosperity many still take for granted. 25 years ago, 11 per cent of all R&D expenditure worldwide was spent in Germany. Today, that sum has shrunk to six per cent, and the trend is falling. For the great nations of Asia - China and India - are catching up fast. Emerging markets like China increased their R&D expenditure from a modest 0.6 per cent per year in 1995 to 1.2 per cent in 2002, a level of investment that is set to increase.
But just because China and India are getting richer does not mean that we have to get poorer. But we do need to keep innovating. We need new products, more intelligent manufacturing processes and new services. And that requires more investment in research and development, but also a lot more effort to put basic research to practical use.
How is the government reacting?
The government has recognised the problem and is doing something about it. Despite the current economic difficulties, state investment in research and development will increase at an annual rate of three per cent. This is what the government pledged to do in the Pact for Research and Innovation it concluded with Germany's leading research organisations last year. We are very grateful that the new federal government and you yourself, dear Minister, also support this move. And we are also very pleased, Ms Schavan, that you immediately accepted our invitation to join us here today.
By 2010, Germany will be investing three per cent of its gross domestic product in research and development. That is an ambitious aim. Just to recap on some figures: at present, only 2.5 per cent of the GDP is invested in research and development, which is less than the United States with 2.6 per cent and way behind Japan, Finland and Sweden with 3.25 per cent. Expressed in absolute figures, the difference will amount to an annual ten billion euros. One third of this sum is to be provided by the federal government and the states - in other words, the taxpayer, and two thirds will be covered by additional business investments in research and development.
Under the guidance of the Ministry for Education and Research, which means you, dear Minister, the federal government has elaborated a strategy to strengthen Germany's position as a hotbed of high-tech. The government's High-Tech Strategy pinpoints 17 fields of expertise which Germany intends to take a leading role in. It is extremely pleasing to note that the Helmholtz Association, with its research areas of Energy, Health, Earth and Environment, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Transport and Space, is very well positioned in all these fields.
The High-Tech Strategy is a golden opportunity for more innovation. Research prizes, support of R&D in small and medium-sized businesses, more freedom in research are all excellent ideas. But they must be followed by action.
My particular wish is that the corset of rules and regulations that restricts us to the point of immobility is loosened up a bit. Bill Gates would never have got anywhere in Germany, for the simple reason that German construction law would have prevented him from putting a window in his garage. There is no lack of talent or bright young minds in Germany. But there might well be in the future, if we are to believe the OECD figures that were published yesterday. This is all the more reason why we need to create the right conditions to nurture these talents.
We still have far too many rules in Germany, which we dutifully conform to. Dear Minister, cutting away the red tape is the only way that the High-Tech Strategy can achieve its goals. This process of debureaucratisation is primarily a question of political wi
- We need greater flexibility at all levels, and more freedom in all areas because we need to act with a greater spirit of enterprise.
- We need an up-to-date system of remuneration, finally. The civil service collective wage agreement is not in our interests. We need to be in a position to offer individual, performance-related salaries.
- The rules governing termination of job contracts are equally pointless for us. There are many cases in which such obligations end up reducing job availability.
- We need clear and efficient decision-making structures in autonomous organisations with the appropriate checks and balances.
- We certainly do not need detailed controlling and micro-management implemented via external regulations.
It would really be an enormous help is if the state could take a step back and focus on its real responsibilities: legal supervision and the establishing of proper political framework conditions. Don't misunderstand me here, the Helmholtz Association places great value on a strong partnership with government. We have a shared goal and are pulling in the same direction to strengthen Germany as a location for research and innovation.
Dear Minister, I know that we agree on many of these points. But I would ask - no, beg you - to remind your colleagues in the federal government of the wise words of Jonathan Swift, author of the celebrated Gulliver's Travels: "Of what use is freedom of thought if it will not produce freedom of action?"
Autonomy and freedom were also of central importance to Helmholtz. His inaugural lecture as rector of the University of Berlin was titled "On academic freedom in German universities". It is a speech well worth reading, and one which we have decided to re-print and bind as a small gift from the Association. Should you invite me any time soon, dear guests, I would be delighted to make you a present of this small booklet that has such a lot to say.
Greater freedom and fewer rules is also what Germany needs to shake off the shackles binding the growth markets identified in the High-Tech Strategy. Which takes me straight to my next point:
How is industry reacting?
Germany and Japan are the world's leading export nations. As goods bearing the "Made in Germany" label are still worth that little bit more, we can still afford the higher wage costs. Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of our economy. SMEs provide the most jobs and are particularly innovative and flexible. Quite a stable and satisfactory situation.
But, important discoveries that were made here in Germany and financed by the taxpayer have not been implemented here. In these cases, the profit, and the jobs, have gone elsewhere.
Basic research for developing a vaccine against cervical cancer was conducted at the German Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg. This is a subject that will be discussed in more detail later. But suffice it to say that it proved impossible to find a German company willing to apply the findings. The vaccine is now being produced by the US company Sanofi Pasteur.
It is often very difficult for SMEs which do not have their own R&D departments to approach research institutes with their needs. We must put even more effort into disseminating information about our activities, and making and maintaining contacts. That is part of our responsibility as scientists.
But there is also a reciprocal responsibility. Some companies go straight to US research institutes, even though we can offer the same expertise and can often meet the needs of our partners more precisely.
This is where people and their professional flexibility come into play. Managers and decision-makers who come from industry to research, or vice versa - researchers who are involved in industry - form a bridge between the two worlds and can initiate that exchange of ideas which we need more of.
It often takes a lot of time and work to find out whether or not a collaboration would actually make sense. We need our partners in industry to show more commitment, curiosity and a willingness to take risks. If research and development are not seen as an investment in the future, but merely as a cost factor, then we really have a big problem in Germany.
Where is the master plan for the German economy that will ensure we can make our contribution to the ambitious Lisbon Goal and invest three per cent of gross domestic product in R&D and make Germany the hotbed of European high-tech? But perhaps the question is wrongly formulated. Perhaps there is no such thing as "the German economy" any more, but simply globally active companies that ask themselves "Where on earth can we best locate our R&D activities and where is the greatest scope for development?"
The business answer to that question is very simple: wherever we find the right talent and are free to do as we will… which takes us back to the subject of flexibility. For there is definitely no lack of talent in Germany!
And how is the Helmholtz Association reacting?
It is easy to make demands of the other parties involved. But of course we at the Helmholtz Association also have to ask ourselves: What are we doing to contribute to the prosperity of our country?
In the Research and Innovation Pact we pledged to improve our performance by creating efficient structures and using the means at our disposal in a targeted manner. And we plan to foster talent more comprehensively, which also means that we have to try harder to persuade today's youth of the fascination of the natural sciences and technology. The School Labs are one such initiative. They are becoming increasingly popular and are booked out for long periods in advance. That is a tremendous success! Well-qualified people are a top priority in choosing a location, for business too.
But what - in facts and figures - are we actively contributing to securing added value and prosperity? One contribution we make are our young researchers, such as the 3,400 doctoral students who train and qualify every year at the Helmholtz Centres and most of whom go on to take jobs in industry. Knowledge transfer is the key expression here.
A further important contribution I believe we make is the development of large-scale facilities for top-level research, some of which is unrivalled the world over. These facilities enable us to give researchers from across the globe the opportunity to gain even deeper insights into nature. That is an absolutely vital function and corresponds to the first point of our mission.
Large-scale facilities like the planned XFEL X-ray laser in Hamburg or the FAIR accelerator in Darmstadt, costing roughly a billion euros each, are not just beacons of basic research that underline Germany's role as a leading nation of knowledge. They are also generators of new technology. In order to build such unique devices, huge technical obstacles must be overcome, and many nifty new technical tips and tricks discovered or invented.
But what we really need to focus more on at the Helmholtz Association is the transfer of technology. We are now approaching companies directly with the theme of "Helmholtz and Industry". Our intention is to expand and intensify cooperation and the transfer of knowledge. For although there are already many very promising collaborations at the 15 Helmholtz Centres, it remains an area where there is clearly room for improvement.
What is our agenda for the future?
The situation in Germany as far as education, science and research are concerned is better than the general mood would have you believe. We must seize this opportunity!
There are plenty of expert committees and positive floods of initiatives and ideas but, as the computer pioneer Michael Dell put it: "Ideas are common property, their realisation unfortunately not". We must also look for new ways to make practical use of knowledge. There is no simple solution.
Among all the hype about spin-offs and innovation, we should not forget that real innovation springs from strong and independent basic research. If we insist on safe bets, on rapid successes, the fonts of really new ideas will dry up only too quickly.
We thus need strong basic research at the Helmholtz Association, but we also need people who can spot a good opportunity to apply a new discovery. This could come about through strategic alliances with partners from industry which would have the resources and capacity to work on future-oriented subjects for a period of five to ten years. Dear Minister, you can count on Helmholtz for your ministry's newly planned clusters of innovation!
We need a change of attitude or even culture as far as the transfer of technology is concerned. The spirit of enterprise and the courage to go it alone in the "Land of Ideas" should be given the respect it deserves by scientists and researchers.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, brings us back full circle to the motto of this year's annual conference: Wissen schafft Wirkung. And the Helmholtz Association is more determined than ever to do all it can to make sure knowledge really can take effect.
Thank you for listening.
