We Should--And We Can--Help Lift Eastern European Research Back Onto Its Feet

When East VGermany fused with West Germany, the state support of science in the former communist sector came to an end. However, despite some inevitable job insecurity, it appears that East German scientists will, for the most part, be able to go on working as the fusion of the two nations continues. Some of them will be displaced, of course, by job-hungry young scientists of West Germany; but others will be able to hang on to their university positions. For a while, their salaries will be a fraction of those of their contemporaries in West Germany, but the situation overall will not be tragic. The future for these scientists may seem bleak at the moment, but the situation is likely to improve over time. In Czechoslovakia and Hungary, however, as well as in other Eastern European nations, the outlook for scientists is brutal. There now is no money for research, and talented scientists there need help to get their science, their economies, and their nations running again. Inside Germany, a program for upgrading East German scientists to West German standards has begun. Perhaps such a program could be mimicked to benefit other Eastern European nations. They need a Western equivalent of what West Germany is doing for East Germany. One can infer from the number of career opportunity ads in the well-read science journals that there is reasonable funding available in the United States for postdoctoral fellows and research associates. Of course, the great majority of funding disbursed to scientists by the U.S. government is for American citizens only. But if the rules were to be disengaged for a brief time, some funding could be used to rectify both the Eastern European scientists' lack of opportunity and the postdoctoral fellow shortage in the U.S. If the federal government were to provide financial support for visiting Eastern European postdocs, more science could get done in the U.S. and Eastern Europe would be able to climb back on its feet much faster when the scientists returned to their own nations. A generous program in basic research would amount to less than 0.5 percent of the amount needed to keep the Central Intelligence Agency involved for a year in the creation of mischief. Members of the U.S. Congress and officials in the grant-disbursing agencies certainly must be capable of joining together for such action. Couldn't they put such a program into place by relaxing U.S. chauvinism in the National Science Foundation, for example? This should be easy for them. Another component of such a program would be more difficult to achieve: Funds would be needed for maintenance--ongoing training, technical updating, and so forth--of the Eastern European scientists for a few years after their return home. Funds should be made available to support visits by these scientists back to their U.S. institutions for a couple of months each year for a few years; they should also be given financial backing to acquire essential equipment. The planning and policy revision needed to launch the program I have in mind could serve as a model for other projects aimed at assisting scientists in troubled nations as well as enhancing the U.S. science enterprise. The potential rewards are vast if the basic research network of Western Europe, the U.S., and Japan is enlarged to include the Eastern European nations. If it works, such a program in basic research could be extended to developing nations. An enlightened, world-embracing, scientific basic research program could spill over into other branches of education in these nations, as well as into local programs of applied research. This could benefit everyone on earth. R.C. von Borstel is a professor in the department of genetics at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

We Should--And We Can--Help Lift Eastern European Research Back Onto Its Feet

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