"It was not only after I assumed office that I have advocated doing more to promote the early independence of young scientists. Independence rather tends to hindered or delayed by the current system of qualification at German universities" the President of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, explained when he presented the DFG's new Emmy Noether Programme at a press conference held jointly with the Federal Minster of Education, Science, Research and Technology, Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers, in Bonn on 30 June 1998.
The President of the DFG holds the view
- that the average age of 41 years for scientists to receive their first professorial
appointment is to high and that the 8 to 10-year phase between obtaining a doctorate and
obtaining a professorship is too long;
- that the qualification of academic teachers in Germany is too little oriented towards
competition and towards promoting the independence of junior scientists;
- that the personnel structure for young Ph.D.s at universities reflects severe shortcomings since adequate opportunities to promote doctoral candidates compare with a lack of jobs for scientists already holding a doctorate.
The new programme is targeted at especially qualified young scientists. They will be given the opportunity to attain the scientific qualifications needed to be appointed academic teacher within a period of five years immediately after getting their doctorate by doing research work abroad and then engaging in independent research at a German university. The excellent applicants will be fully integrated in the normal teaching and research activities of the host institutes.
The programme will handle 100 new grants per year, i.e. 500 ongoing funding projects over a five-year start-up phase for which up to DM 120 million will be required. The programme is to be named after Emmy Noether who is considered to be the most important modern female mathematician. In 1918, she was the first woman to be awarded the title of professor at the University of Göttingen, even though officially women were only granted this right in February 1920. After her academic teaching licence had been withdrawn in Göttingen, she emigrated to the USA in 1933 where until her death in 1935 she worked in Princeton, among other places, and cooperated also with Einstein and Weyl.