munich

For the first time since reunification, German federal and state governments have accepted without a fight a recommendation of Germany's science council, the Wissenschaftsrat, to close two ‘blue-list’ research institutes.

Last week, the Bund-Länder Kommission (BLK), which coordinates national and regional science policy, decided to withdraw funding from the Institute for Mineral Oil Research, in Lower Saxony, and the Institute for Child Nutrition, in Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen. The Wissenschaftsrat had judged the quality of research in the two institutes to be low.

The BLK's decision is a boost to the status of the council, an independent government advisory body made up of leading scientists and political representatives, whose advice has often been ignored. Blue-list institutes, which are jointly funded by Länder and federal governments, have proved hard to close, partly because of the social costs of doing so.

Since reunification the number of such institutes in Germany has increased dramatically, from 48 to 82 (see Nature 379, 669; 1996). Three years ago, the BLK asked the Wissenschaftsrat to review the scientific quality and administrative efficiency of the institutes. But although the Wissenschaftsrat has so far recommended that funding be withdrawn from 7 of 21 institutes assessed, host Länder have, until now, always successfully contested these conclusions.

The BLK's apparent reluctance to take firm action, despite a statement last year from the federal research minister Jürgen Rüttgers that he wanted all Wissenschaftsrat recommendations to be implemented, had caused some council members to question the value of their efforts. “If politicians ask for our advice, we expect it to be heeded,” says Michael Maurer, a spokesman for the Wissenschaftsrat, adding that last week's decision “is certainly what we wanted”.

Two factors helped the BLK to agree on the closures. The first is Germany's worsening budgetary problem, and the second a recent agreement that redundancy payments should be jointly financed by federal and Länder governments, rather than by the host Länder alone. “This makes it less difficult to close blue-list institutes,” says BLK member Eberhard Wagner.

But the BLK still wavers. Two further institutes recommended for closure received a temporary reprieve last week. An Earth sciences institute in Hannover and an environmental health institute in Düsseldorf have both been asked to present new scientific strategies.