India's largest research agency has been without a permanent director for almost five months, prompting some observers to claim that science isn't high on the government's agenda.

The role of director of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which runs 37 laboratories staffed by more than 18,000 scientists, comes with the status of a government secretary. It became vacant last December when chemist Raghunath Mashelkar quit the post — and the hunt for a successor has got nowhere fast.

Science minister Kapil Sibal initially appointed Visveswaraiah Prakash, director of the CSIR's Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, but he withdrew on health grounds. Maharaj Kishan Bhan, the government's biotechnology secretary, took temporary charge in January, but after eight weeks he passed the responsibility to Thirumalachari Ramasami, secretary of the Department of Science and Technology.

India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, keeps saying the government gives priority to science, says Sri Krishna Joshi, director of the CSIR from 1991 to 1995. “But one does not get the feeling he is serious, considering that the CSIR, of which he himself is president, has been headless for so long.”

Scientists blame the declining prestige of public research as one reason for the failure to appoint a director. “Until a few years ago, the only way for a scientist to get noticed was by becoming a secretary to a scientific department,” says Samir Brahmachari, who heads the CSIR's genomics institute in New Delhi. “Today, with opportunities to do good science outside the government, no brilliant scientist would want to be a secretary and be answerable to the parliament and all sorts of committees.”

Scientists at the CSIR agree that it's a difficult job. During Mashelkar's eleven years as director, unions were banned and complaints from staff were rarely entertained. “The new director should be ready to deal with the thousands of complaints that have piled up,” says one lab director who wants to remain anonymous.