24. April 2007 Helmholtz Head Office
Helmholtz Academy ready for takeoff
April 24th 2007. The Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres has launched a Helmholtz Management Academy to give its managers an even better grounding in the tasks and challenges of research management. An external partner, the Malik Management Zentrum St. Gallen, will be responsible for the content and methodology of the training courses, with a solution tailored specifically to the needs of the Helmholtz Association. The two partners have now signed a cooperation agreement.
"The next generation of managers have usually had to work their way into their new responsibilities on their own. This often meant they had to reinvent the wheel and learn the hard way," says Professor Jürgen Mlynek, President of the Helmholtz Association. Leading a large and complex research institute has become an increasingly demanding task. A structured course of further training to accompany professional practice is a way of teaching new managers tried and tested basic management techniques and skills. The Helmholtz Management Academy will start training the first top-level managers in the late summer of this year. From September on, 30 young scientists and new administration managers will be able to receive targeted training in Research Management, qualifying themselves for their new tasks.
The course programme will impart the knowledge needed to master the particular challenges that face managers in a research environment. Strongly practice-related, a mentoring programme will put the young managers in touch with highly skilled mentors from the Helmholtz Association and industry, involving course participants in actual projects. Teaching will also address current questions arising from the participants' own current management and team situations. The programme lasts two years and includes on-site seminars and independent learning, supported by an internet platform with online modules and personal tutors. In the medium term, the Helmholtz Management Academy will also be opened to participants from universities and other scientific/academic organisations as well as research-intensive companies.
The Helmholtz Association contributes to solving the grand challenges which face society, science and industry by performing top-rate research in strategic programmes in the fields of Energy, Earth and Environment, Health, Key Technologies, Structure of Matter, Transport and Space. With its 15 research centres, 25,700 employees and annual budget of approx €2.3 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest research institution. Its work continues the tradition of the great natural scientist Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894).
