DFG Secretary General retires

12 Sep 2007 | News
Reinhard Grunwald has resigned as Secretary General of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The new Secretary General is Dorothee Dzwonnek .

Reinhard Grunwald: 11 years at the helm



Reinhard Grunwald has resigned as Secretary General of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). A farewell ceremony was held at the Redoute in Bonn last week, attended by 150 guests, representatives of the German federal government, the German states, German universities and the international scientific community who paid tribute to Grunwald’s achievements over the eleven years he spent at the helm of the DFG.

Among the speakers was Professor Ernst-Ludwig Winnacker, President of the DFG from 1998 until the end of 2006, and now Secretary General of the European Research Council (ERC), who described Grunwald’s time in office, including the system evaluation of the DFG and the Max Planck Society and the resulting reorganisation of the internal structure at the DFG’s Head Office; issues of scientific misconduct; the introduction of the review board system, which ushered in new standards for its peer review system; the changes to the its statutes; and the internationalisation of the DFG’s activities.

During Grunwald’s term of office, the DFG’s budget doubled and the number of employees grew from 600 to 800. The new Secretary General is Dorothee Dzwonnek.


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