March 18, 1991
Meeting between Federal Minister of Research Heinz Riesenhuber, the science and research ministers of the new federal states, and Professor Dieter Simon, chairman of the Science and Humanities Council.
A recommendation was drafted, according to which new institutes would be founded in Eastern Germany with a total staff of approximately 7,000 to 10,000. The funding for these new institutes would be shared equally by the federal government and the respective federal state. Parts of the AdW institutes would be affiliated with universities and receive temporary state support (Researcher Integration Program [Wissenschaftlerintegrationsprogramm or WIP]; Higher Education Renewal Program [Hochschulerneuerungsprogramm or HEP]).
The federal government considered larger scale financial support for job creation measures (ABM), e.g., occupational retraining programs.
The property of the AdW institutes would go to the federal states in which they were based.
May 10, 1991
Meeting of the science and research ministers in Berlin.
At this meeting, the “guidelines for institutional support in the new federal states” were passed with the following key points:
– Founding of new institutes by December 31, 1991
– Announcement of scientific leadership positions, in each case in collaboration with a university (joint appointments)
– Appointment of founding directors
– Selection of personnel based on the criteria for civil service appointments (anyone who previously worked too closely with the state, e.g., for the state security service, could not be hired)
– Degressive financial assistance for staff cutbacks
– A balanced academic research landscape should be aimed for.
August 16, 1991
Regulations to safeguard research findings and trademarks/patents by the interim administration, KAI-AdW.
September 19, 1991
Conference in Dresden of the science and research ministers of the new federal states with representatives of the Federal Ministry for Research and Technology and the Science and Humanities Council.
– The evaluation was completed. The AdW institutes would be divided up among a small number of larger research institutions; a large number of facilities would be jointly financed by the federal government and the federal states as well as by institutes and working groups of the Fraunhofer Society and the Max Planck Society.
– The only thing that remained uncertain was the status of the Rossendorf Research Center [Forschungszentrum Rossendorf or RFZ] (major research center or not?)
– Roughly 10,000 employees would be moved into new jobs.
– The new institutes would have 100 million DM at their disposal as start-up funding, which was to be used primarily for investments in new equipment.
– The AdW staff was reduced from 24,000 employees in May 1990 to 16,766 in August 1991.
– Roughly 2,000 applications were submitted for the Researcher Integration Program. The universities called for the time limit to be extended beyond 1993.
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