Setting the pace in overcoming an immense tragedy
The Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Society celebrate the fortieth anniversary of their scientific collaboration at a special event in Berlin
It began with tentative feelers, and evolved into a close-knit network over the decades: Israeli and German scientists will be celebrating the fortieth anniversary of their collaboration at a special event at the Harnack Haus in Berlin-Dahlem on Wednesday, March 3, 2004. The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel, and the Max Planck Society, together with its subsidiary Minerva Foundation, signed the first agreement to foster joint research projects in 1964.
Speeches by Professor Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society, Professor Ilan Chet, President of the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Edelgard Bulmahn, Federal Minister for Education and Science, will form the center of the event.
Following these speeches, four scientists will report on the results of joint research efforts. "Seeing the brain in action" will be delivered by Professor Amiram Grinvald from the Department of Neurobiology at the Weizmann Institute; "From genes to cancer therapies" by Professor Axel Ulrich, Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, "A novel therapy for neurodegenerative diseases: T-cell-based vaccination with universal weak agonist", by Professor Michal Schwartz, from the Department of Neurobiology, Weizmann Institute of Science, and "From serendipity to studies of causality via genomic research: A novel avenue for antidepressant drug discovery" by Professor Florian Holsboer, Max Planck Institute for Psychiatry.
Two guests of honor will be speaking at the dinner. Professor Kurt Biedenkopf is the former Premier of Saxony, while the physicist Uzi Smilansky was one of the first Israeli scientists to work at a German research institute. He will give an account of his impressions of working as a visiting researcher from 1968 to 1971 at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg.
The Max Planck Society's Minerva Foundation has been involved in scientific cooperation with Israel for longer than any other body in the 40 years since it began its activities. The Minerva Foundation offers the most comprehensive support programs, which have been financed from the start by the Federal Ministry for Education and Science to a total cost of some 200 million euros. Essentially, these programs are supported on four pillars.
Minerva-Weizmann Project Support
These activities have been in place since 1964. The Minerva Foundation currently provides an annual sum of 3.6 million euros to support around 80 research projects at the Weizmann Institute of Science. The main beneficiaries are young researchers with outstanding qualifications working on top caliber individual research projects with international and German research institutions. The first Minerva Lecture Award was granted to Professor Daniel Zajfman as part of this program in 2003. The award made it possible for the professor, an astrophysicist from the Weizmann Institute, to present the trail-blazing work on interstellar matter he had conducted with Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics to the public in Heidelberg.
The total expenditure by the Federal Ministry for Education and Science and its predecessors on the Minerva-Weizmann Project Support up to 2003 was 123.5 million euros - with an unusual degree of success. More than 10 per cent of all the Weizmann Institute’s published work in the last ten years has been the result of research supported by these funds.
The Minerva Fellowship Program
Covering all German and Israeli research institutions, the Minerva Fellowship Program was set up in 1973. The Minerva Foundation is currently supporting around 50 Israeli and German grant holders researching in their host countries for periods of up to three years at a cost of 1.2 million euros. There is an increasing emphasis on targeting support on up-and-coming academics, so as to encourage the younger generations of scientists to take part in Israeli - German cooperation. The Fellowship Program organizes Minerva Schools and Gentner Symposia (named after one of the founders) that are held alternately in each country. Additionally, there are grants for short stays of around three months, namely the Minerva Seed Grants and Short Term Research Grants. The schools and symposia provide larger groups from both countries with the opportunity to exchange ideas and to make the first contacts for future collaboration.
By 2003, 31 million euros had been provided for these purposes and utilized by 700 Israeli and more than 800 German researchers for long-term research visits in other countries.
Minerva Centers
The Minerva Centers were established in 1975 as a further means of support. The Federal Ministry for Education and Science provided 65 million euros trust capital for the centers. The income from this trust capital, which is matched by equal funding from Israel, finances the annual budgets of the Minerva Centers. An advisory board composed of equal numbers of German and Israeli scientists audits research work and decides on new research projects and the application of resources.
There are currently 41 Minerva Centers at seven Israeli research facilities. They have been set up as centers of excellence to further leading edge research in close cooperation with German research facilities. These centers work in fields ranging from German history and human rights, to German-Jewish literature and art history to the application of genetics and biotechnology in agriculture, or topics such as the conversion of light energy, through to marine biogeochemistry and computer science.
Minerva Junior Research Groups
In 2001 the Minerva Foundation closed a gap in the German-Israeli research support program by setting up the Minerva Junior Research Groups. There are five of these groups so far, and they are connected to many Israeli universities and research facilities. The Minerva Foundation provides funding of around 100,000 euros a year. The Junior Research Groups follow the example of the Max Planck Society by limiting their work to a five-year period. During this time, outstanding young researchers have the chance to qualify for future leadership in research and to strengthen Israeli-German scientific cooperation at this early stage in their careers. The selection process for researchers to work at two new Minerva Junior Research Groups is already underway. These groups will work at the Weizmann Institute of Science alongside an existing group.
In addition to, and independent of the individual Minerva programs, various Max Planck Institutes have systematically expanded their collaboration with Israeli partners. There are currently 85 joint research projects, and around 70 Israeli researchers work as guests in Max Planck Institutes every year.
Another successful research facility is based on mutuality. Dr. Erez Raz is the first Israeli scientist to lead an independent Junior Research Group of the Max Planck Society. He has been in charge at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Goettingen since November 2000. The group’s counterpart, with a German junior researcher at its head, will be established later this year at the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot.
Professor Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society, reminded his audience that it was scientists "who first set the pace in overcoming an immense tragedy that seemed to have sundered the Israeli people from the German irrevocably." It was on the invitation of Josef Cohn, Gerhard Schmidt and Amos de-Shalit of the Weizmann Institute that a delegation from the Max Planck Society made a first official visit to Israel at the beginning of December 1959. The delegation consisted of the President of the Society, Otto Hahn and two scientists, Wolfgang Gentner and Feodor Lynen.
This tentative feeler (in Otto Hahn’s words) grew and won the support of the then heads of government, David Ben Gurion and Konrad Adenauer. In 1964, a year before the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, it led to the first Minerva agreement on scientific cooperation between the two countries. "From these beginnings forty years ago, which also helped to free post-war German science from international isolation," said Gruss, "an ever-growing and ever closer-knit network has developed, which now faces the challenges of the march of globalization and the creation of a European research area." He stated that the Weizmann Institute and the Max Planck Society followed the same aims in this process, namely to ensure the excellence and competitiveness of our institutes, departments and researchers on the international stage.