Multi-Culti Science
"Observations of the Owl" - The Owl reports a true story indicating that funding decisions are not always based on pure quality only.
You know, it's quite remarkable: Among the many attributes people usually associate with owls is that we are loners. Time to reveal a secret: We are not. We owls like company, we even have friends! How did that misconception come about? Interested? Okay, I'll tell you a little bit more about owls: We have sharp eyes (that's a well-known fact) and we like to joke around (not at all well-known).
With that in mind the following scenario is somewhat easier to imagine: Whenever a field scientist approaches a mischievous bunch of owls, they see him much, much earlier than vice versa - and they scatter. What the scientist is then privileged to observe is a single owl, each of us impassively gazing down from its branch. However, don't let this fool you, deep inside we are stifling a laugh and having a great deal of fun.
Oops, there I go again, submersing myself in idle owl chit-chat. Sorry about that and hope you aren't too bored already. Actually, I wanted to tell you something about a scientist friend (yes, owls have friends - you remember?). He was sort of a loner, at least in the German life science community. And because I find his story quite representative of what can happen in the research business, I'll tell you a bit more about what he experienced a couple of years ago.
We pick up at a point where, having been successfully doing his post-doc in a very famous lab in Cambridge for some years, he had returned to a research assistant position at a German Max Planck institute. That, however, was the start of a series of problems. I remember very well our monthly phone conversations which, after a mere couple of minutes, almost always descended into the same lament: Once again applied for a grant - once again rejected!
At that time I was unable to judge the quality of his grant applications but, nevertheless, it left me wondering. I had always known him to be a downright brilliant brain and clever researcher. Every time I assured him of this, however, he grimly replied: "What's the use anyhow? Lobby counts! Look, Owl, I had a thriving project there in Cambridge. Here in Germany, however, nobody is working in that field. In the meantime, I would even go so far as to say that nobody here really understands the field. And with that in mind, Owl, try to imagine what will happen when one of these alleged top German geneticists comes to review my grant proposals... What can I say? I simply don't fit into the culture of German genetics research."
Well, to start with, I couldn't believe that! I had always thought that grant applications were judged on pure quality alone. So, what was it that he was always complaining of: That he didn't fit into a research culture?
However, I was soon to learn that there is quite an element of truth in his statement. As you can easily imagine, my friend tried to get another position. "Somewhere outside of Germany", he assured me. And he had success. The head of a Swedish university department wanted him as an associate professor - particularly because his projects would fit nicely into the research structure of the department. (Does that sound like research culture?)
Now, according to my friend, for the really astounding twist in the tale. Shortly before he officially obtained the position the Swede called him. There was a minor problem with timing, he told him. The current period for grant applications to the main Swedish funding agency was just about to expire and would my friend be able to send an application within the next two weeks? Just so as not to miss the opportunity of obtaining some Swedish research money right from the start.
So, what does my friend do given that short prep time? Of course! He took a grant application out of the drawer which had just been rejected by the "Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft", the main German funding agency. He translated it into English and sent it to the Swedish funding agency. And what happened? This almost identical application, for which there was no place in the German genetics research culture, won him the highest grant in Sweden for this funding period.
So much for the illusion that the science funding business is objective!
Any comments? Write to owl@lab-times.org
