The second half of the Nineties
Wooing guest-researchers
By Heike Jöns
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Even in the era of the Internet, face-to-face contact between researchers forms the basis of surprising scientific insights and trusting collaboration. (Foto: PhotoDisc).
 | The political change in the Eastern Bloc broadened the potential for international academic cooperation considerably. After initial orientation towards Germany, which historically, geographically, and culturally was the nearest Western country to aim for, the focus of researchers in Central and South Eastern Europe shifted away from Germany. Many young researchers turned towards the countries in the Anglo-American tradition which had attractive research facilities and offered the advantage of using English as the language of science.
In the second half of the Nineties, there were also fewer applications from other countries. This was true, for example, of the U.S.A., Japan, Great Britain, Australia, and South Africa. Therefore, the total number of applications per year dropped back to the levels of the 1980s. A multitude of factors contributed to this downturn. On the one hand, the consequences of the drop in the birth-rate in highly-developed industrialized nations meant there were fewer young academics available. On the other hand, the range of fellowships on offer world-wide was vastly greater. In addition, many graduates preferred financially more attractive jobs in industry to those in academia. Since cultural bonds to the host country are also an important factor in deciding to spend a longer period of time researching abroad (Jöns 2002b), in many countries (e.g., U.S.A., South America) diminishing biographical connections to Germany and Central Europe are responsible for a further decrease in the interest in longer-term stays in Germany.
Asia and Africa
Humboldt Fellows by home country, 1994 bis 2002. Click here for a larger image (Graphics: Jöns).
 | A growth in applications from the Asian countries India, China, and Bangladesh could be traced in the Nineties. As a result, China heads the current rankings for the fifth decade (1994 - 2003) both in relation to applications and fellowships. Concurrently, the African states Nigeria and Algeria showed quite considerable interest for the very first time. Egypt was still the most frequently- represented African country with regard to applications but Nigeria actually received more fellowships. Over and above this, since 1998 the Humboldt Foundation has been awarding Georg Forster Research Fellowships to highly-qualified post-docs from developing countries. This offers opportunities to spend time researching in Germany without having to compete with applicants from economically stronger industrialized nations.
International marketing
In order to consolidate Germany's place in the network of international academic relations and to expand the internationalisation of Germany as a place to do research, since the end of the Nineties the Humboldt Foundation has been intensifying measures geared to making their sponsorship programmes more well-known and more attractive to the researchers whom they are wooing world-wide. Apart from targeted dissemination of information, new sponsorship tools have also been introduced. Hence, in the framework of the Federal Government's Investment in the Future Programme ("ZIP"), the Humboldt Foundation has created the most valuable academic prizes in the world. Entitled the Wolfgang Paul Award and the Sofja Kovalevskaja Award, they were bestowed on 43 young foreign academics for the first time in 2001. Free of administrative constraints, they offer the award winners the opportunity to carry out long-term research work with their own working group and thus constitute an important basis for continuing the internationalization of research in Germany.
Conclusion: Humboldt sponsorship fosters internationalization
The Humboldt Foundation's sponsorship figures for the last five decades can be related to global political events, internal developments, and the reintegration of Germany into the international scientific community. Applications and fellowships grew, boomed, stabilized again; the regional focus of sponsorship shifted. New Humboldt programmes opened up various segments of academic mobility, the Humboldt Foundation's followup work and the voluntary initiative of former guest-researchers consolidated a widespread network of Humboldtians on all continents. During the period under consideration, the work of the Foundation was characterized in its distinctive continuity by political neutrality, flexibility under changing conditions, demanding selection principles, and individual care.
In a fast-track academic world, long-term Humboldt sponsorship opens up important opportunities for intensive academic exchange across national, disciplinary, cultural, and linguistic borders. In particular, face-toface contact between Humboldtians and members of their host institution may lead to surprising scientific insights and trusting collaboration which, even in the era of the Internet, would not otherwise come about (Jöns, 2002b). Sponsorship of international academic mobility certainly does not complement what is assumed to be the inherent internationality of science; on the contrary, it is what creates it in the first place.
Academic findings only attain an international, objective, universal character by moving from one place to another, by recruiting supportive resources in other places, and by proving themselves and being accepted in new contexts. Thus, the creation of opportunities for cross-border interaction in the sciences and humanities is undoubtedly one of the most important effects of Humboldt sponsorship. In addition, there are the personal bonds with Germany which, in the long term, go beyond the academic dimension and mould Germany's political, cultural, and economic relations with the world.
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