Max Planck President visits Czech Republic and Poland

Martin Stratmann participated in the festivities marking the 125th anniversary of the Czech Academy of Sciences on Wednesday. He is using the visit to exchange views with senior representatives of science and politics on the European Research Area and further possibilities for cooperation, first in Prague and then in Warsaw.

At the invitation of the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Jiří Drahoš, Martin Stratmann spoke at the celebration on Wednesday in Prague, about the organization and the conditions for success of the German research system. Under the title “Cooperation and Competition? The relationship between university-based and non-university research”, the President discussed the mission-specific division of labour between such agents as the Max Planck Society, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, and the institutes of higher education and universities. He also situated national research systems within the global context. 

Stratmann pointed out that in the light of ever-increasing international competition for outstanding researchers, it will not only "be countries that compete with each other in the future. It is communities of states like the European Union, which are increasingly funding research and which compete with the US and other world regions such as Asia." What is true for a country today will apply to the community tomorrow. "Optimizing the internal science structure through a healthy interplay of competition and cooperation is essential in international competition," Stratmann underlined.

The celebration took place in the headquarters of the Czech Academy of Sciences; other speakers included Pavel Bělobrádek, Vice Prime Minister for Research and Innovation.

Max Planck researchers are well networked

Martin Stratmann also met other representatives of leading Czech research institutions in Prague, including the rectors of the Charles University and the Czech Technical University. Subsequently, Stratmann will hold talks in Warsaw; here, too, he will meet government representatives, rectors of the leading universities, as well as representatives of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Foundation for Polish Science (FNP). The talks will cover the further extension of scientific cooperation also in the context of the strengthening of the European Research Area.

Scientists of the Max Planck Society are involved in numerous projects with research institutions from both countries. Thus, there are around 50 cooperative projects in the Czech Republic and around 80 in Poland. The spectrum is very diverse, ranging from the exchange of measurement data for research on climate change through to international collaborations, such as work for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator at CERN in Geneva.