munich

Germany's two main scientific organizations, the Max-Planck-Society (MPS) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), which is Germany's university grants council, are likely to have their anticipated increase in federal funding cut from 5 per cent to about 3.5 per cent next year, as a result of a decision last week by the parliamentary commission on the budget.

Overall, Germany's 1998 federal budget for research and education would be trimmed by DM22 million (US$12.5 million), to just under DM15 billion. The parliamentary committee adjusted cabinet proposals for the federal budget for the MPS and the DFG, published last July, to DM785 million (down DM8 million) and DM1,070 million (down DM11 million) respectively.

In the past five years, the budgets of both organizations enjoyed a steady increase of five per cent a year, enabling them to catch up with costs from the reunification of German science. In July, Jürgen Rüttgers, Germany's research minister, promised a similar increase for 1998.

Germany's federal budget will be finally approved by parliament in late November, and the recommendations of the budget committee are usually accepted. But, before that, relatively minor adjustments may be made as a result of high-level negotiations. Hubert Markl and Wolfgang Frühwald, the presidents of the MPS and the DFG, have already reacted sharply to the proposed cuts. At a meeting in Jena last week, they asked Rüttgers for support and reminded him of his five per cent promise.