1 Wilhelm Krull Europe's New Strive for Excellence in Research and ...

During the next ten to twenty years (this we can say without consulting a crystal ball or involving
witchcraft) we will see quite dramatic changes in our societies. Future growth and
social welfare will increasingly rely on knowledge-intensive products and services. We can
also, particularly in view of the demographic development in Germany and most other European
countries, expect to be faced with the completely new challenge of how an ageing continent
can actually maintain its capacity to innovate intensely. In this respect there is still a lot
to learn for European research policy-makers and university leaders from the U.S. research
universities because quality assurance, foresight activities, priority-setting, and strategic decision-making
will become even more important in the future. Given the overall critical state
of affairs, it is by no means easy to maintain a sense of optimism. But that is what is required
by university as well as foundation leaders, at least in the sense of one of my favourite sayings
about the difference between a pessimist and an optimist which goes like this: “An optimist
knows how bad the world is. A pessimist has to go through the experience of evil over
and over again.”
If Europe wants to achieve real progress, we will have to move even more from short-term,
low trust modes of operation to more rigorous, ex ante-assessments and selection processes
which lead to more stable, medium-, to longterm commitments. Despite the many flaws and
failures that do occur in our universities, the answer cannot be to introduce ever more and
ever tighter reporting and control mechanisms. To my mind we rather need a leap of faith
based on high trust principles that allow for some thorough rethinking of common wisdom
and for conducting research in unknown territories and “off the beaten track” areas. Of
course, it does not suffice to simply provide more time and space for creativity. As many outstanding
research institutions such as Rockefeller University and almost all U.S. research
universities, the Max-Planck-Society, the Wellcome Trust, or Howard Hughes Medical Institute
(to name but a few) are demonstrating, it is a conditio sine qua non to rigorously invest
time and expertise in assessing the candidate’s performance so far, the leadership qualities,
and the potential for future groundbreaking research. Only if all of these aspects and the
consistency of the candidate’s principles, beliefs, values, and actions provide a sufficiently
coherent picture of his or her personality, should we go about hiring the new person. If not,
we should not refrain from searching anew for the best possible candidate.
But once we have made the appointment, we should see to it that the person hired can work
under optimal conditions at the frontiers of knowledge, for at least five to seven years undisturbed
by other assessments than the ones made anyhow by the funding agencies to which
he or she will apply for hopefully at least medium-term grants. If we do not reshape our sys-
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