In an effort to combat Germany's growing national deficit, the country's new Treasury Secretary, Hans Eichel, has announced a plan to slash next year's federal budget by DM30 billion (US$16.4 billion). This burden, Eichel demands, must be shouldered by all government departments equally, and for the Ministry of Science this could mean cutting expenses by five percent, effectively reversing last year's budget raise of over six percent, which had ended a decade of stagnation under the former Kohl government.

Edelgard Bulmahn

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has defended the cost-saving measures, known as "Eichel-Sparpacket," and ruled out any exceptions, although many scientists hope that maneuverings by Science Secretary Edelgard Bulmahn will pay dividends and that the science budget will only decrease by 2.3 percent from this year's DM14.93 billion. Schröder has not commented on promises he made during last year's election campaign to double investments within five years, (Nature Med. 5, 253; 1999).

Close inspection of the allocations to science reveal that DM550 million in grant money (BAföG) will be paid by the federal government's credit institute, Deutsche Ausgleichsbank. This, in essence, hides money that benefits science by moving it outside the Science Minstry's budget. And some research areas may still see a modest increase: biotechnology funding is set to rise 5.4 percent to DM195 million, public health and medical research will increase 1.7 percent to DM178 million and molecular medicine will gain a 1.4 percent increase to DM75 million.

But even with Bulmahn's 'creative accounting', it appears that the country's premier scientific organizations-the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)—will have to manage on only a three percent increase in federal money. And the cuts do not bode well for the recent proposal by the DFG to make an additional DM400 million available over the next five years for genome research.

"I'll be in real trouble when they give much less than the five percent promised," MPG president Hubert Markl admitted to Nature Medicine, referring to the task of rebuilding the scientific infrastructure in former East Germany, which is far from complete. Despite the difficulties, Markl still feels that science and research is a priority with the new government, a sentiment echoed by a DFG spokesperson, who claims that science is faring "reasonably well in comparison to other departments."

Hans Eichel

At present, almost one quarter of the government's tax revenue is spent on interest payments. The cuts are expected to win parliamentary approval in late fall without major changes. A recent poll found that 80 percent of Germans support the plan.