Florida meets Bavaria
Governor of Florida as guest of the Max Planck Society
As part of a visit of several days to Munich, John Ellis "Jeb" Bush, Governor of the US State of Florida, will open a "Life Science Networking Seminar" held in the Max Planck House at the Hofgarten on November 15, 2005. At the conference, organized under the heading "Florida meets Bavaria," representatives from Florida and Bavaria will exchange information about life science activities in which they are both currently engaged. Around 100 invited guests are expected from the fields of business, science and politics, including over 30 guests from Florida. The participants will present their respective research locations and discuss various topics such as the promotion of science, technology transfer, innovation and economics, as well as discuss options for extending their cooperation.
With his participation at the opening of the conference, which will take place in the Max Planck House at the Hofgarten, Governor Bush is demonstrating his state's strategic interest in further advancing biosciences. In the past few years Florida has made major investments in this area and has significantly strengthened its research infrastructure through, for example, the creation of a research facility at the renowned Scripps Institute. Furthermore, Florida offers a good overall environment for the location of high technology companies.
The visit of Governor Bush and his delegation provides the Max Planck Society with the opportunity to present the excellent research potential and successful technology transfer of its institutes in Bavaria and beyond, and to sound out opportunities for scientific cooperation.
Max Planck institutes are much sought after and valued research partners. This is not only apparent by the over 5,000 foreign guest scientists who are active every year at the 78 Max Planck institutes, but also in the approximately 1,600 international cooperation projects that are currently being carried out, predominantly with cutting-edge research facilities and universities in the strongly research-oriented countries of Western Europe and Asia.
The USA plays an outstanding role in the scientific cooperation of the Max Planck institutes: over a quarter of the institutes' international projects are conducted with partners in the USA. This aptly documents the outstanding competitive strength of Max Planck institutes in the field of leading-edge international research.