Lone Frank

EMBL Rescued From the Financial Brink

Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory were breathing a sigh of relief last week after the topflight center in Heidelberg, Germany, announced a 25% budget increase for the next 5 years. The boost eases months of uncertainty over how the lab would comply with an order to pay employees back salary and provides a measure of stability to its renowned but embattled European Bioinformatics Institute.

Something Rotten in the State of Danish Research

RESEARCH FUNDINGCOPENHAGEN-- Academic and industry leaders here have begun to speak out about the gradual whittling away of the countrys research capacity by governments that show little interest in science. Fueling this outburst is a report published last month, by the presidents of the countrys 10 universities, which are all publicly funded. They conclude that although their nominal budgets have risen along with increasing student numbers, those budgets have been thoroughly eroded by rising costs. Unless wide-ranging changes are made in the support for science, researchers argue that Denmark risks missing a major opportunity to compete internationally in biomedical science and biotechnology.