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Abstract

Germany's Max Planck Society has secured funding for its first institute on US soil, due to open next year. Michael Gross reports. Germany's Max Planck Society has secured funding for its first institute on US soil, due to open next year. Michael Gross reports. The Max Planck Society is famous for its around 80 research institutes (MPIs) scattered all over Germany, where top researchers can follow their dreams unencumbered by teaching or excessive admin duties. What is less well known is that the society also runs three institutes abroad. The oldest of these goes back to a donation of Henriette Hertz, who left the Palazzo Zuccari in Rome to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, which opened an institute for art history in 1913. Reopened as an MPI in 1953, the Bibliotheca Hertziana is now one of the leading centres for Italian art history and has just completed a major new building with library facilities, supported by private investors. The society is now set to expand its portfolio of foreign MPIs in Rome, Florence, and Nijmegen (NL) with the first institute outside Europe, in the sunny climes of Florida. The Max Planck Florida Institute will be a biomedical research centre located on the campus of Florida Atlantic University (FAU) at Jupiter, Palm Beach County, just over 100 km north of Miami. A key factor in the choice of this location was the presence of the Scripps Florida Institute, which specialises in basic biomedical research and drug discovery. It was established in 2003 with major financial incentives from the state and is due to move into permanent accommodation by early 2009. Max Planck and Scripps plan to collaborate on health research. Moreover, the Germans and their US hosts hope that the presence of these two institutes will swiftly attract related companies and lead to the crystallisation of a biotech cluster. With this reasoning, Palm Beach County's Board of Commissioners approved a $86.9 million grant for the building. Together with contributions from FAU and other partners, the funding totals $94 million, matching a separate payout from Florida's Innovation Incentive Fund, which was agreed in March. With the start-up funding secured, the foundation of the new institute is now a certainty. It will move into temporary facilities on the FAU campus in the spring of 2009, and building work on its permanent home is expected to start in 2010. The institute plans to employ around 150 researchers, mainly working on imaging techniques, ultimately aimed at biomedical applications. Max Planck president Peter Gruss said: “When we achieve a deeper understanding of the structure, dynamics and function of molecules and tissues, we can then address some of the most challenging problems in biology, bioengineering, and medicine, which can ultimately be used to help improve medical diagnostics and medical care.” It will also offer space to visiting scholars and engage in education through collaboration with FAU and local schools. Peter Gruss promised: “We will invest three percent of net royalty revenue generated through our Florida-based research into the promotion of science education, such as scholarships to local science students.” For the Max Planck Society and German science in general, the Florida institute will also be a valuable foothold in the US, facilitating collaborations and transatlantic moves of German and international researchers. The society has a track record of luring highly successful scientists back from overseas. Especially for researchers who had breakthrough success in the US, and who wouldn't be tempted by German professorships, the offer of the directorship of a Max Planck ‘Abteilung’ has often been the key to reversing the brain drain, demonstrating its competitiveness on a global scale. Similarly, the society, which has produced 17 Nobel laureates so far, will see its move into sunny Florida not as an escape from Germany, but as a bid to compete with the world's finest. Along these lines, the society is also looking to establish a number of more loosely associated ‘partner institutes’ in other countries, following the example of the Institute for Computational Biology in Shanghai, a joint venture of the MPS and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Such partner institutes are also under consideration in Argentina and India, where the society already collaborates with nine different groups. “Following a systematic analysis of local conditions and dependent on the overseas partner, we are endeavouring to find and establish the ideal form of cooperation to suit each location,” Peter Gruss explained. “Our aim is to strengthen the presence of German science in those key countries that are of decisive importance to us.”